Rome fell. Will the modern-day West follow suit?

The Economist ^ | May 25th 2023

[MinorityRepublican]

Declinism is in fashion again. As relations between America and China worsen, studying the ends of earlier ages of hegemony becomes more popular. Books predicting the unstoppable rise of autocratic strongmen and the death of democracy proliferate. There is much talk of the “Thucydides trap” the inevitability of a clash between a rising power and an established one, as Athens challenged Sparta in the fifth century bc.

This provocative short book adapts this approach with a novel twist. It draws a comparison between the West in 1999, the zenith of its confidence, and Rome exactly 1,600 years earlier, in 399—just decades before the empire’s collapse.

[Secret Agent Man]

IT IS FALLING NOW

[Da Coyote]

Yes.

Next question.

[MinorityRepublican]

IT IS FALLING NOW.

That part is obvious. We are in decline now. But we haven't collapsed yet.

[C210N]

Yep, just follow the money.

[C210N]

It's drip... drip... .... .... drip.... ... !!!!FLOOD!!!!!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Rome took “Hundreds of Years”

The USA / The West are not taking “Hundreds of Years.” It’s more like “A Couple of Decades.”

Everything is a lot faster in the modern world.

[ealgeone]

We’ve been in the process since the 70s but it’s accelerating now.

[heartwood]

The Visigoths were at least Christian.

The usual barbarities were observed.

[MinorityRepublican]

Everything is a lot faster in the modern world.

I would say that the U.S. is a generation behind France, England, Sweden and Germany. They allowed in a lot of Muslim immigrants but we didn't do that.

[BenLurkin]

[Palio di Siena]

1962

[algore]

Yes is the answer.

the question is:

On how long of a time frame ?

I have had the privilege of working with many people from almost every country in the world, and yes they are the best and the brightest.

One day I was talking to a guy named Konst I think, and he mentioned a writer named Dimitry Orlov, and was shocked that I had read his work.

A few years later he begged me to vote Hillary because he was not a citizen and couldn’t vote, but that is another story.

[C210N]

It’s been sharply downhill going back to at least the Act of 1871.

[steve86]

How about the rest of the article?

[steve86]

Really, the warp drive acceleration since 2020 /covid is the bulk of it.

[MinorityRepublican]

On how long of a time frame?

Good question. We still have the states. They may have to rebel. Or the Feds will have to turn totalitarian.

[Salvavida]

Jesus said a divided house cannot stand. We will balkanize down to the county level after the economic collapse. Then all hell will break loose. Book it.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

” the Feds will have to turn totalitarian.”

There are MOUNTAINS of proof and evidence that is exactly what they are doing.

[Robert DeLong]

You have to ask? We are 33 trillion in debt on which we now pay a trillion+ annually in interest only payment, and we are increasing that heavily on a per day basis. That doesn't even include the unfunded liabilities which are well in excess of 100 trillion approaching 200 trillion, if it already doesn't exceed 200 trillion. We have a heavily compromised president who stole the election that installed him as the usurper in Chief. We have an illiterate populace, many, even those legitimately born here, who seem to think the Constitution is irrelevant and that the Natural Born Citizen has been settled by the omission to enforce that requirement.

The decline has been ongoing for a couple of decades now. We are on out last legs & I honestly do not see salvation unless the Lord himself intervenes. Can patriots revive her after she falls? Perhaps.