Is the United States really "over the cliff?"
Dark, reactionary forces seem to be in ascent. Not just here, in the United States, but all over the globe. Our national debt is staggering. Our treasure, which has been squandered in military adventures and short-sighted, greedy policies, is even now leaving our shores for China and India. Our empire is in decline. And history offers countless examples of empire in decline that shed light on our potential future. Rome, 455? Paris, 1793? Moscow, 1917?
(Further, from a purely biological aspect, things look bleak. Species die-off, global warming, disappearing aquifers, deforestation... it's all leading to something, people. A while back, I posited an idea (Final Days) about the repercussions of the relatively sudden explosion of the human population on Earth. I haven't read or heard anything to dissipate my fears since then.)
It ain't no picnic getting up in the morning thinking that this country has already seen its best days. But I can't dismiss the evidence I see all around me. As I see it, our best hope is that we can somehow accept the new reality with wisdom and grace. I don't hold out much hope on that score. November 2, 2004, dealt a mortal blow to my faith in my countrymen.
"[H]ippie optimism dies hard," says Joe Bageant, in his article, The Ants of Gaia. I agree. I cherish those moments of baseless optimism that come to me, unbidden and unexpected. And I reserve an irrevocable faith in the Great Whatever:
All will be as it must.
1 comment:
That wasn't an explanation, that was just being morose again. The British Empire went into decline, the residents of the UK are better off now than then.
I don't think anyone can stop you being fatalistic and miserable about things if you really want to be. after all people have been making predictions such as yours for thousands of years (and been wrong every time). But what good does it do you or anyone else?
The world is the richest, most peaceful, healthiest, most free it has ever been. Can you dispute any of those facts? If the world is the richest, healthiest, most free it has ever been, how can you say that you cannot deny the evidence that it's all going wrong?
This is the best time to be alive in all of history. Not seeing that is denying the evidence.
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