We’re History

American Spectator ^ | 2/18/2013 | Bill Croke

[IbJensen]

It took Rome a lot longer.

“….the Roman government appeared everyday less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. The taxes were multiplied with the public distress; economy was neglected in proportion as it became necessary…. If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.” — Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

In New York City and Philadelphia “flashmobs” rob and vandalize newsstands and stores. This is a national phenomenon. In Chicago, the police department now won’t immediately respond to 911 calls if they involve post-burglaries, petty, or non-violent crimes. They’re too busy dealing with the daily carnage that is the nation’s highest murder rate, one that bested the number of military fatalities recorded in Afghanistan in 2012. When crazy people shoot up movie theaters and elementary school classrooms, we’re told it’s the gun’s fault. On a lighter note, the Wall Street Journal recently informed us that the demands of hip-hop fashion dictates that boys insist — despite the protestations of Mom, Dad, and school administrators — on wearing shorts to school in bitter winter weather. The girls prefer flip flops as their toes turn blue while waiting for the school bus. “Things fall apart; The centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” (William Butler Yeats).

The schools are an administrative and intellectual wreck, and kids not knowing how to even dress themselves is a good metaphor for their current state.

[IbJensen]

What's wrong with this article? It's wildly optimistic.

There are a thousand examples of our inexorable demise the author could have cited.

We're going to make Rome look like a piker in our rush toward dissolution. The depredation of every single American institution, every single cultural landmark, every single aspect of the American character, continues at breakneck speed. Indeed, at this juncture entropy's progress can be discerned from day to day, and the death spiral accelerates even as the dance of delusion becomes commensurately more frantic and oblivious.

But that's what we want. That's what we voted for. Do the liberals know the endgame of their religion is annihilation? The suicide of the West, brought about not by plauge or conquest, but by the greed and vanity of fools and knaves.

Only when there are no tomorrows to come will the left be satisfied, the fulfilment of their fantasies having reached its logical and inevitable conclusion.

And it is not that they will find succor, for there is no succor for the left; it is a cancer that seeks no surcease, but only oblivion.

And so it is not satisfaction that will stop the left. It is that they, too, will be sucked into the black hole they have so painstakingly constructed.

[stockpirate]

Sadly we are all Detroit now.

[Psalm 73]

“....it is not satisfaction that will stop the left. It is that they, too, will be sucked into the black hole they have so painstakingly constructed.”

All of the “usefull idiots” anyway - the upper-wealthy and politically-connected will be on cruise-control (that’s across party lines - don’t think there aren’t powerful Repubs angling for safety nets).

[driftless2]

Nice jeremiad by the writer. Pretty much agrees with how I feel. Of course few people realize things are getting worse. I don’t mean in the material sense, because in that area, things are getting better. But human dignity and integrity have suffered major blows in the last fifty years. A society that doesn’t know the meaning of discipline and respect for time-honored traditions is doomed.

[Popman]

We are like the Obama Greek columns...

Beautiful on the outside....hollowed out on the inside...

1000 points of small pressures will crush them...

Every day Obama and his minions remain in power...we add a few more points of pressure...

We will collapse spectacularly...

[bert]

-—— That’s what we voted for——

I take issue with that statement.

That is what the urban blue majority voted for. The urban citizens live the destructive forces and clamor for the government, the Messiah to make their existence livable, to bring salvation.

They are fools, especially the young women. They hunt for a daddy that doesn’t exist. They believe that by working to make a difference by living the leftist creed it will all go away. Being fools, they believe the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his disciples who spew hate.

There will be a reaffirmation of the 70’s belief....... burn it all down. Steal and loot and pillage the very existence giving resources that permit life to be eaked out in the failed cities.

Living in the North East Cities is more dangerous than having cancer. Both will destroy you...... it is but a matter of time.

[Huebolt]

The big growth industry will be companies that will get entire families OUT OF THE USA. Emmigration is the new wave.

America was founded by people who didn’t wind the cat, or put out the clock when their countries became intolerable, they left. (Robert Heinlein)

I try to think of where to go, but only Russia comes to mind. They do not take terrorism lightly and will gladly destroy every trace of anyone or anything that tries it.

They have all the resources including space.

I watched a Russian telecast of a popular program, and everyone in the audience was a RUSSIAN! No f’in diversity wanted or needed.

They also know what socialism can do, and hate it.

[dynachrome]

I am reminded of the oak tree in “Atlas Shrugged”

[ejonesie22]

Sad isn’t it. Russia beat the Communist, we just watched he get elected here...

[MarDav]

But it is “We, the people...” so, in effect, the “this is what we voted for” is correct when the we is understood to refer to us and the us is a capitalized (and abbreviated) U.S.

Either way, it’s all semantics at this point. While we’re (uh...WE’re) “screwed” I (and possibly you) have yet to feel someone’s hand tool sticking and twisting in the back.
And, while “it’s over,” we haven’t really seen anyone come along and, with the aid of a mammoth-sized spatula, slide in under us (oh dear!...U.S.) and begin to scrape, lift, toss).
And even though we (WE) can all just reach over and “turn out the lights,” no one’s bed time reading is at risk at this point.

See? It’s semantics.

[WVKayaker]

But human dignity and integrity have suffered major blows in the last fifty years.

I was just thinking of starting a vanity thread about the coarse language being used by may posters. Potty mouth has expanded to "potty fingers".

Reading this morning, I found several scatological references and several f-bombs. No hiding it like using asterisks(sh*t), but spelled correctly!

I am guilty of using coarse language. I think we have degraded even our language skills. Too many can't even make a sentence without cursing, even mildly. We live in a new world, where too many are more equal than others!

A society that doesn’t know the meaning of discipline and respect for time-honored traditions is doomed.

We can be part of the problem or the solution. Look at the numbers of threads on cultural stuff, and it seems it is all us vs them. When even cops are (too often) the problem, you know you're in trouble!

[bert]

I no longer believe in WE.

I believe in US and THEM.

To continue to believe in WE is to continue down the path to perdition. THEY must be destroyed.

[Joan Kerrey]

We are like the Obama Greek columns...

Those words cover every aspect of this administration pretty well.

[Accessible Pudding]

I ask this simple question, but before I ask it, allow me to state something. I’m sure no one ever envisioned defeating the Brits in a revolution and I’m sure many thought the country was doomed the dawn of the Civil War, and some how by the grace of God we remained a nation. The American Spirit doesn’t rest in the hands of DC politicians that wait for the day they can toss it in the shit can, the American Spirit rest in the hearts of us Americans. The backbone of our society. So I come to my question. Who is America? We the People or those we elect?

[Psalm 73]

“I try to think of where to go, but only Russia comes to mind.”

Interesting idea.
But I’m an American and I will fight and die to protect my country - even from its own.

[sport]

Unfortunately, under the system of Government we have, the majority, unless it is in conflict with Blacks, Females, homosexuals, rule. The minority, again unless it pertains to tha afore mentioned groups, has little or no say.

So in reality IbJensen was correct. As a whole “we” voted for what we now have. i did not vote for the bastard either time. But more voted for him than voted against him, so once again he is inflicted upon me.

[WVKayaker]

I try to think of where to go, but only Russia comes to mind.

I am flying out Monday morning from DC to Cebu, Philippines. From there, I take a"Superferry" across to Ormoc City, Leyte.

PI is english speaking, Christian, and has some of the most pleasant people in the world. All of them, you ask? Of course not, but by and large, I look forward to making new friends and living in a new land. I will have high speed internet, cellphone, $200 rent, and full-time maid/cook/laundress for around $40 a month. Food is good and plentiful, and fresh seafood is a constant treat! I never liked borscht.

There are other FReepers already over there (Alex w is living in Cebu), and I have heard great things about that land and it's people.

Russia? It is 91 today in Manila, and 73 tonite...

[Daveinyork]

My only question is whether Obama is our first Caesar or our last. Will he be dictator for life, or the finishing touches of a once great civilization.

[redgolum]

A great many on this site will demand the same things that are killing us.

I have known people who are expats. Some who left decades ago because they didn’t want to see the end. I have been thinking lately perhaps it is time to leave.

But where to go?

[WVKayaker]

http://www.livinginthephilippines.com/

[Caipirabob]

I live in the American West. It is still America here.

The schools are wonderful and the kids are still polite.

People carry, some open, most don't display as it's not a big deal either way, since they are able to protect themselves.

Thugs meet quick ends out here, maybe not every time, but enough to know it happens most of the time.

It's a tough land, and it will eat you alive and keep your bones, but it's beautiful and it's God's country.

Maybe we're a last bastion.

Maybe we're an example for hope and to hold on. I choose hope and hold on."

[Jumper]

What is holding America afloat given all the different pressures tearing her apart?

My perspective is based on two precepts, one of disruptions and the other stability:

- First at both National and State levels economic chaos (spending and print money) and social decline (laws no longer enforced and social norms reversed) are making governance impractical.

- Second - People who are part of the older social order of yesteryear, keeping faith or supporting the laws and working are spread across the Nation in just enough numbers to keep a tenuous balance for the present.

The problem for America is that as those with New Social values conquer those who support stability, those who are stable decline in numbers. This lack of stable people who can be defined as those follow laws without being forced to comply; defined as those who work in self-supporting jobs; as those who care about each other, etc. are diminishing rapidly and while not lacking in population numbers at present, they are being marginalized at the ballot box and ridiculed in the media to as to brand them extreme.

The tipping point is at hand now. A few more years of liberal social revolution which rejects anything stable/conservative which now equates to Extreme has blinded those who seek to overturn the Country from a nation that once worked like a well oiled engine both socially and economically into a government directed social and economic enterprise.

The Government now must cannibalize those who still support the old economic model in order to support the new economic social model. Those who fail to produce enough to support themselves or support laws they find objectionable will force their chosen political parties to demand more wealth distribution. This is always done via a strong leaders mandate, oftentimes by executive order in our Nation, by passing laws or failing to enforce laws, and finally by literally putting all resources under government control.

The gun control issue is one that puts law abiding Americans into direct conflict with the current Government. The only people who actually support a gun control to take away firearms are those politicians who supporting the 50% part of America that is destroying the economic model in favor of a social economic model. They know that at the final tipping point, a government cannot use force to take the last bit of privately owned property or resources without a fight, and that if necessary there may be an economic breakdown completely whereby the Government must confiscate all wealth in order that those in power and those who support it survive until those who oppose them socially and politically are diminished, finished and destroyed completely.

It is time to let you ponder the many ways our Nation is be torn asunder and to figure out how to successfully survive this transition. Stocking up on Medicines, food/water and other necessities to get through a few months would be wise; It would be wise that immediately upon a Government-made disaster those who are conservative immediately without hesitation move to destroy those who be grasshoppers at the expense of the ants. Hunkering down will not do as at that tipping point those who seek to destroy are the weakest for only a fleeting moment.

[paint_your_wagon]

I try to think of where to go, but only Russia comes to mind...... No f’in diversity wanted or needed.

---

So, in other words, the Russians might not need or even welcome a bunch of Americans that would want to settle in their country. If/when we do experience an economic collapse, I suspect that most other nations will not open their borders to Americans trying to flee, they will have enough trouble with their own native population.

[DouglasKC]

Who is America? We the People or those we elect?

Both. But unfortunately the base motivations are the same: Get all we can from government, avoid working as much as possible and don't you dare tell me that what I'm doing is wrong.

[Daveinyork]

My only question is whether Obama is our first Caesar or our last. Will he be dictator for life, or the finishing touches of a once great civilization.

[Mouton]

“jeremiad”

My compliments on making me look up a word meaning. It fits.

As for the contents of the article, the author nailed it. Some here added to it and the accumulation of observations is informative.

I agree with one comment about the effect of the coarsing of our society. Another commenter added our education system finds students who do not even know how to dress themselves. The latter comment is a personal rant of mine.
I used to point to the removal of school dress codes to the beginning of society losing its grip because it was the visual manifestation of the change from an orderly leader based institution to that of mob rule.

[central_va]

Face it, it is not possible to save the entire USA, but through secession we could save a huge chunk of it.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I can see a different parallel, one with some very ironic twists to it. And though it didn’t happen in the western Roman Empire, it happened in the eastern Roman Empire (which still considered itself the Roman Empire), whose capital was Constantinople.

Much of the irony is based on literal colors assigned to political factions: blue, green, red, and white. In America today, blue would be Democrats, green would be far left radical environmentalist Democrats, red would be Republicans, and white, conservative Republicans.

In Constantinople, these colors existed as well, both as political factions, and as sports teams. There was bitter competition between the two great factions, the blues and the reds, with the greens in loose alliance with the blues, and the whites aligned with, but mostly sidelined by the reds.

The blues were dominant, and were favored by the Emperor, Justinian I, who was a capable administrator but not a tremendous leader. He had a very strong wife, however, in the Empress Theodora I, who had been born a commoner and knew the hard side of life.

The problems began after a major sporting event, when several blue leaders murdered some reds, and were arrested and sentenced to death. The blues and greens rioted, some of the worst riots ever known, and much of the city was burned. Terrible devastation. These were the “Nika” riots.

What began as a protest soon turned into an effort by the blues and the greens to overthrow the emperor, and put one of their own leaders in his place.

The Emperor, again not a strong man, decided to abdicate and flee, but his wife, Theodora I, was made of sterner stuff. She made him sit down with two loyal generals, and scheme to preserve his crown and the empire.

So a peace conference was called, to take place in their great amphitheater. The entire blue and green faction was to attend, and they intended to demand terms of the emperor’s surrender and abdication, as well as to elect the new emperor.

Once assembled, the two generals brought their armies to encircle the amphitheater. Then a senior slave, known and liked by all, entered the amphitheater, and approached the leaders of the blue faction with bags of gold.

He said he had been sent by the emperor, and the emperor wanted to remind them that he had supported them in past.

They took the hint, and sent a message to their followers to all march out of the stadium at once, and they did.

The puzzled greens, however, on seeing the blues leave, decided the blues had lost their will to power, so they would name the new emperor from among the green leaders.

Great!, more for us.

Then the armies attacked the amphitheater and killed every one of the greens.

By this action, to which credit should uniquely go to empress Theodora I, the eastern Byzantine Roman Empire, instead of falling, lasted for another 200 years before it again needed a strong leader.

Of course, not all parallels are exact. We do not have an emperor and empress, but an Imperial presidency, for example. Yet the parallels among the political factions are almost eerie.

Nor am I saying that if the 20% most radical Democrats were exterminated, that it would do wonders for our constitutional order, stability and prosperity.

But it might.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots

[huldah1776]

That’s what the urban blue voted for...6 TIMES!

[Yardstick]

I’ve lived in Tennessee and Alabama and both seemed like America to me. Even in the blue states when you go a certain distance outside the cities you’re in America. You don’t have to go to Russia or the Phillipines to escape. You just need to go to the next county. Maybe “countyism” is the new federalism.

[Yardstick]

Phillipines = Philippines

[Yo-Yo]

Sadly we are all Detroit now.

At least we allow CCW in Detroit.

[Flycatcher]

I agree.

The American Body Politic is withering from cancerous tumors right now. Parts of the Body may still be saved, but they need to excised from the spreading cancer.

And soon.

[Vinnie]

Permanently? Yikes! Does sound nice.

[HomeAtLast]

Face it, it is not possible to save the entire USA, but through secession we could save a huge chunk of it.

Chartering a free city, one capable of expansion, running on free enterprise and Constitutional principles, might be a better way -- not to mention less likely to be opposed. Who needs an entire state anyway?

[central_va]

Chartering a free city, one capable of expansion, running on free enterprise and Constitutional principles, might be a better way -- not to mention less likely to be opposed. Who needs an entire state anyway?

Your idea is sound but the next political division down is the state - not the city. You are 2 Civil Wars ahead of the curve.

[HomeAtLast]

IbJensen: "That’s what we voted for"

bert: I take issue with that statement.

So do I for a different reason. Voting only determines the speed, not the destination, which is the demise of America. It isn't a matter of what we voted for, it's a matter of what we are supporting financially; and not only supporting, but making possible. No govt can support itself at all -- it cannot continue to exist -- without the wealth freely, resentfully, grudgingly, fearfully, but always voluntarily, surrendered to it by the people who produce it.

Nobody is sending it one penny more or less than the govt demands, because Obama won, rather than Romney. Nobody. You pay what is demanded. That's the whole problem. You can scream all day how you loathe the government, but if you support it financially 100% all the time, no matter what, you are loving it.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

The success of our Grandfathers and fathers left us rich. When we became rich we did not know how to handle the resulting leisure. As a result of the leisure we devoted our lives to eating, drinking, drugging, copulating, evacuating our bowels, snoring and "The Games."

We committed suicide. To help us die we elected a President a member of the Third World, one who does not even belong to our society. In my lifetime if one of his people had announced they were running for "Dog Catcher" our society would have burst out in peals of Homeric laughter. Today they are symptoms of our impending death.

[HomeAtLast]

I understand, but chartering a city does not result in a civil war. No state is going to secede, nor would the fed govt allow it (regardless of original terms of statehood).
People are far, far too timid to organize a secession movement. I’m trying to offer something realistic, though even a city would take a generation to beef itself up into a plausible contender.
And if it were mine to name, I’d call it Tax Haven rather than Liberty City. But I’m a cynic. :)

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Objection! That creature has neither the brains nor the ability to be a Caesar. (Those guiding and funding him, such as Axelrod, Emmanuel etc may have the collective ability to transform our Republic into an Empire.

However, I have a faint hope that inside Americans(not Third World invaders)there may be enough spirit left to throw these "Third World leaders" into the trash.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Objection! That creature has neither the brains nor the ability to be a Caesar. (Those guiding and funding him, such as Axelrod, Emmanuel etc may have the collective ability to transform our Republic into an Empire.)

However, I have a faint hope that inside Americans(not Third World invaders)there may be enough spirit left to throw these "Third World leaders" into the trash.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

That is what the urban blue majority voted for. The urban citizens...are fools, especially the young women. They hunt for a daddy that doesn’t exist. They believe that by working to make a difference by living the leftist creed it will all go away. Being fools, they believe the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his disciples who spew hate.

They also believe it's OK to vote 10 times.

[AFret.]

I am reminded of the oak tree in “Atlas Shrugged”

---

I am reminded of the scene from “Easy Rider” when Jack Nicholson tells Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda that..”This use’d to be a damn good Country.”

[WVKayaker]

Permanently? Yikes! ...

My return ticket is 12/19. I will go back in Jan/14 if everything goes to plan!

I'll be looking at a rental house just out of this pic, to the right, on Thursday...

[usmom]

excellent synopsis. The tipping point is indeed here or very close at hand.

[driftless2]

I’m a huge basketball fan, so a few days ago I was on this sports website called SBNation reading an article about a certain team in the NBA. The guy writing the article saw fit to use the f word several times among other vulgar words. I thought to myself this clown (Matthew Sharp) actually used it as an adjective. He had to know he’s writing an article read by adults, and he thought it fit to use f.....g to describe some particular play. I don’t know how old this idiot is, but anybody who uses casual obscenity in a sports article that could be read by teens or children is not an adult.

[Road Glide]

“No state is going to secede, nor would the fed govt allow it (regardless of original terms of statehood).”

Perhaps not.

But a _group of states_, bound together by like-mindedness and preparation, might be in a position to “break off and float away” on their own, in the event of a total collapse of the DC government.

Everyone with foresight sees some kind of “collapse” coming — that’s the premise of this thread. But must _every_ state be pulled down into the sinkhole when that happens?

Think back in history to one of the great disasters — the Titanic.

When it hit the iceberg, ripping open the forward portion of the ship, it sank from the bow down.

As the bow dropped lower, it pulled the stern of the ship upwards, right out of the water into the air.

But the forces involved were so great, the weight of the sinking bow vis-a-vis the opposing weight of the rising stern, that “the center” could not hold (apologies to Mr. Yeats). The ship tore itself apart, just below the waterline. (Aside: in Walter Lord’s “A Night To Remember”, he mentions “a great noise” that everyone heard before the final plunge. But he never mentioned the “split”, perhaps because no one realized what actually had happened until Robert Ballard discovered the wreckage in 1985. Perhaps the “noise” people heard was the “tearing” of the superstructure itself.)

Once the bow ripped away, it plunged towards the bottom.

The stern “settled back”, before it, too, went down. There were watertight bulkheads “behind” the tear, but they weren’t high enough or strong enough to keep the waters out.

BUT — what if the watertight bulkheads in the stern had been high enough and strong enough to enable the stern to float on its own, once the bow was gone? Could those on the stern have survived?

This is what the red states must do — they must “build a bulkhead” that gives them a chance at survival when the DC government collapses and the blue states plunge to the bottom.

We see the red states taking small steps toward doing this today — laws that shield their citizens from ObamaCare, laws that seek to protect the rights of gun owners, etc.

The governors and legislatures of these states must confer with one another, and agree upon a pathway to the future that is “congruent”. I’m aware that the Constitution forbids compacts between the states (arrived at outside of the federal process), but no “agreements’ need to be codified to paper. It’s more important to agree on a general set of principles that each state will use to proceed _independently_ of one another.

And when the time comes, they will be prepared to actually JOIN together, as the rest of the country falls apart and sinks toward the bottom...

[ronnie raygun]

All this and they want to take our guns away so we are completely defenseless

[ez]

If it comes to that, then that WILL BE the collapse the author portends. Americans know that the future figures to be very dangerous and they don’t want to face it unarmed.

[IbJensen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Lvl5Gan69Wo