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Ah ha! You're starting to catch on. And we also have devised a delusion the the basic work that sustains this nation can be done elsewhere while our basic carefree concerns can be self-amusement, Britney Spears, and cults of personality.
Another pattern I find characteristic of decline is the evolution of a cult of inherited and/or soft leadership, whether it's degenerate Roman emperors, weak kings of France, or more cultivated weak useless families such as th Kennedys, Gores, incipiently the Clintons, and the Bushs.
It's sickening. But predictable. A civilization is effectively in decline as soon as food, water, and shelter come at very little cost to the average slob. Water comes dependably from faucets, food grows effortlessly on store shelves, human waste vanishes down the toilet, a garbage truck comes and eats the trash once a week. What with all our most essential needs met at the flick of a wall switch, it's time to speculate endlessly about Brittany, et al.
There's a fraction of one generation left in this country who know what means to endure widescale want and hardship. When the last of them dies, we'll effectively be adrift in the ocean of history, aboard a liferaft made of the most scrumptious whipped cream mankind has ever concocted.