Quo Vadis, America?

[Ser Clegane]

Incorrect?

Inappropriately snidey, yes, but I don't know about incorrect.

Incorrect, as the original post did not at all imply that the US hasn't seen worse situations in the past - incorrect (and snidey), in implying that the thread starter is ignorant.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Yeah. On further review of the play, offensive and incorrect statement and snide remark. 15 yard penalty, repeat second down!

OT: Ser Clegane I love that angry smilie you use. I just picture this whenever I see it.

[Ser Clegane]

Perhaps I should use that one as avatar

[Watchman]

It has... impact.

...and a smoky, robust oaken aroma...(/wine taster)

[King Henry V]

All empires (I consider America to be an Empire. In my book, that's a compliment ) decline and fall. It is a fact of history. To think otherwise is foolish and arrogant (hell, even the Nazis knew that they would evebtually end). America will fall, one day. Whether it will tomorrow or in fifty years time or more, no one can really know. But all things come to an end.

[Rodion Romanovich]

All empires (I consider America to be an Empire. In my book, that's a compliment ) decline and fall. It is a fact of history. To think otherwise is foolish and arrogant (hell, even the Nazis knew that they would evebtually end). America will fall, one day. Whether it will tomorrow or in fifty years time or more, no one can really know. But all things come to an end.

Yes, but the fall of an empire can be affected in many ways by the actions of that empire. For example the nazi "empire" fell quickly because they went around trying to start wars with everyone. Fighting both USSR and the USA wasn't exactly a too bright decision. Although the involvement of the USA wasn't easy for them to avoid, their removal of all safety margins for being able to handle neutrals joining the war on their opposing side by attacking the USSR and leaving Britian alone to regroup the RAF could probably even then have been possible to predict would lead to defeat.

On the other hand you can postpone a horrible fall like the romans by divide et impera followed by economical and military buildup and fortification, but the humiliation over divide et impera and the discrimination called for a horrible revenge once it came.

Other empires just degrade slowly, became a smaller state that's no longer an empire but at least a country, and do so without suffering greatly in the process.

Saying that these things are fully random is IMO foolish and arrogant, to use your own expression. On the other hand I in no way imply that there's no randomness in it, as that would be equally foolish and arrogant. Many empires of fairly nice guys have been destroyed because they were ignorant and thought they wouldn't be subject to invasion from the outside. But at least it's better to remove as many causes as possible for a future fall, if you want an empire to last.

One of America's outstanding qualities is it's ability to reinvent itself, to rejuvenate itself. It has had difficult times before. But they always bounce back up, with renewed spirit and vigour. It never seems to completely lose that feeling of innocent optimism.

On a side note, that very phrase was commonly uttered in the roman empire during the century before it's fall.

To sum it up: America has carried out far from sound politics since ww2, but has in no way gone so far that it can't repair itself if it acts quickly. On the other hand, there seems to be little desire for acting quickly to repair the damages, and the new generation of leaders in the USA are becoming more and more trigger happy and war-mongering, even threatening to thrust a wedge between Europe and the USA, which would be fatal at a time where many other parts of the world are rising in economical and military power. Finally it's a dangerous attitude that it'll fix itself without any active action. More activity is needed to allow for further implementation of a functional democratic system and conscription in the USA, two factors which would remove the irrational and uncontrolled war-mongering which creates new enemies against the USA, something that in the long term can only be disastrous. The attitude that it'll fix itself, in combination with the escalation of horrid developments (which show that active work is needed to turn the trend), might make this list of terrible developments into - unfortunately - the beginning of a much longer list of horrible developments of this kind, rather than just a temporary crisis.

[Watchman]

Know when the British Empire was at its largest ? Between the World Wars. At that point it was also pretty much also at its weakest, although that probably wasn't readily obvious at the time.

And how many in 1989 could tell the Soviets would be gone in two years ?