My point was that the premise of the purported author is incorrect.
Most of the great civilizations of world history never had periods of anything vaguely resembling freedom or democracy. In fact, of all the ancient civilizations, there are only really two that did. Those were Greece (in its many city-states) and the Roman Republic. Since both were slave-based and quite restrictive on who was a citizen, even their “freedom” was largely illusory by modern standards.
That the supposed author thinks these two outliers make up a survey of world civilizations tells us little about world history, but much about his parochial vision.
Meanwhile, in the real world, civilizations that were never democratic or “free” plugged along for thousands of years.
I think I understand your point. My response was/is that it really doesn't matter if a civilization plugs along for 1000s of years, if they are not free.
So what if the US plugs along for the next 1000 years. I'm not content with what it it is and fearful of what it will become.