Posted on 01/26/2018 12:08:39 PM PST by RinaseaofDs
"Seen accurately. American collapse is a catastrophe of human possibility without modern parallel . And because the mess that America has made of itself, then, is so especially unique, so singular, so perversely special — the treatment will have to be novel, too.
The uniqueness of these social pathologies tell us that American collapse is not like a reversion to any mean, or the downswing of a trend. It is something outside the norm. Something beyond the data. Past the statistics. It is like the meteor that hit the dinosaurs: an outlier beyond outliers, an event at the extreme of the extremes. That is why our narratives, frames, and theories cannot really capture it — much less explain it. We need a whole new language — and a new way of seeing — to even begin to make sense of it."
“...education must be fixed.. that’s the real long term threat.”
If Vince McMahon can go up against the NFL, surely we can get it together to compete with, or demolish, the NEA.
Even if America reconsecrates itself to God, it is still, at the end of the day, still a kingdom of this world, and not the next, the path to which is the Kingdom that Christians need to keep focused.
Umair Haque is an Arab, so anything he thinks means nothing to me.
I don’t argue against his reasoning(except public healcare).
I believe what explains America’s mass shootings, ophyiod epidemic along with countless other crisis that have afflicted the Untied States is surprising.
It’s because we are told we are.....suppose to “HAPPY”
We have told ourselves that we are unique little snowflakes who not only expect to be happy and successful in ALL our endeavors and desires and when it doesn’t happen....immediately... We throw a tantrum.
Whether it is through drugs, alcohol, sex or through a scope on top of a tall building, we want what we demand... whether we desire it or not.
The era of instant gratification, instant success, instant potatoes have formed our way of life... and it’s killing us!
Dumb article: author doesn’t know the situation and suggests incorrect remedies. The most prominent example: American life expectancy started falling in 2015 with the implementation of Obamacare. The authors soluton? Socialized medicine.
for later read
I thought it was drivel. No offense. I can hear the libs on CBS bemoan school shootings.
read it. I think the author enjoys his subject.
I tried. I failed. Would the author suggest an armed rebellion and civil war to avoid his anticipated Armageddon?
“Even if America reconsecrates itself to God, it is still, at the end of the day, still a kingdom of this world, and not the next, the path to which is the Kingdom that Christians need to keep focused.”
Bingo, and it is happening, you just won’t hear about it in the news or academia.
The writer is describing what one would see if Romans 1 were playing itself out in a culture. People turn away from God, and God lets them do it.
In the end, people reach bottom, and there is either revival, overthrow or disappearance of the whole country.
No country in history has been able to avoid this downward curve and its inevitable terminus.
I respectfully disagree. There is one root cause that the author has missed entirely: the driving of God from our public square.
When we abandoned God, we abandoned the Christian world view that this world is the place of testing, not happiness. So much of the hopelessness and despair we suffer from today is due to the embracing of empty promises (materialism and hedonism) that cannot provide true meaning or purpose.
And when abandoned God, we abandoned His true system of morality and restraint, the check that keeps fallen Man from spinning out of control.
Every horrible thing that is happening can be traced to the catastrophically wrong decision we have made when in our wealth and pride we decided that God is no longer necessary.
Just read the Communist Rules from the Congressional Record. We are at the completion of that document.
He’s not proposing socialism, single-payer, or anything else.
The main thrust of the article is that there isn’t language available to describe the problem, and the problem isn’t economic or political.
It’s cultural.
He’s for capitalism. His problem with capitalism as it is in the USA right now is that it is divorced from anything culturally normative.
Work for any length of time for Amazon, where you can be very well paid, and you’ll sense it.
The robotics push, the auto-drive push, the space-race frenzy with which we are trying to make human beings something that will require abatement maybe strikes more to the heart of it.
He admits he isn’t saying it well. His observations are on point. Our homeless problem in Coastal WA is ridiculous. The people now living together in one place to save money is high.
I give this guy a ton of credit for attempting to get a six minute article around the issue. Some of the responses here so far make some of his points.
I see this in my kids, and I see this in industry. My mother became addicted to perscription opioids by simply following the doctors advice.
The breadcrumb trail here is more substantial all the time, and it isn’t a political, or really economic, issue.
We have morphed culturally into something bad for the world. We started doing it when we went off gold, told the world we wouldn’t monetize our debt, and then did just that.
This didn’t happen overnight.
Every election is "The most important" "Most earth-shattering" "Life Changing" "Choose Your Hyperbole" in recorded history.
However, 2016 might actually have been that important. A win by Hillary might have pushed us over the edge.
We won't know, not without another 20 years or so of hindsight. We'll see.
One of the biggest pock marks on American society was the legalization of abortion which dramatically reduced the sanctity of life.
Then you mix in diversity in such a rushed manner as to create pockets of diverse identities who are told they are being oppressed, by the government and also by the church.
Next you take over the teaching of the following generations and subvert them to believe their country is evil and is the cause of the world's problems. That even their parents are part of the evil, because the goal is to destroy the family unit America used to respect. You teach them that they should do whatever it is that they feel like doing, regardless of the law. They also teach them that it is alright to entertain perverse sexual feelings because you were born that way, and it is not your fault for allowing those perversions to be acted upon.
The last part of the process to become visible is the political party that has been successfully invaded & taken over and populated with Americans who are all too willing to trash the American society as being racist or being oppressed, for personal gains financially & endowed with powers. That party proclaims to be the salvation for all of the oppressed, even more loving & responsive to their needs then even their family.
Eventually you have created a society primed for destruction. Destruction against those who are not within their identity group or groups, and self destruction by those to weak to fight. Destruction brought on by the leaders you elect, because you only listen to what they say while ignoring the results of their actions. The press already having been indoctrinated in their schooling are naturally going to rally around the political party they have been taught is their savior & salvation, so they act like they are on autopilot.
This is how you destroy an enemy from within, without ever having to fire a shot. It can only happen in societies that adopted western values because they are the only ones that allow the freedoms for these subversives to take place unchecked. In other words, they use the freedoms they espouse to be their key to destroying them.
That is why all societies who practice principles of freedom are all in trouble right now. It is not just America by any way shape or form. Europe may be in even worse shape then we are, but we are not far behind for sure.
That is why free societies end up back in dictatorships. Dictators are the only ones that can get society on a united path. Because those who refuse to conform are exterminated.
I think it is certainly one element of it. Our secular institutions used to operate with a morality, however, that they don’t seem to anymore.
No doubt, God leaving the public square is a big part of it.
I’ve had the feeling that it’s too late for a long time now.
I applaud Trump’s efforts, but one man cannot single-handedly turn the culture and morals around for the entire country.
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