[Tokhtamish]

Another sign of decline is a kind of late imperial complacency about the future, even when the signs of trouble are everywhere.

In declining empires you see the Theodosius, Olivares, Joseph Chamberlain, etc who saw what was coming and tried to discard doomed policies and adapt. But they failed because the Texas_Dawg's around them shrugged that everything was AOK, the empire was God's Will and therefore eternal and present problems would just go away.

[Texas_Dawg]

In declining empires you see the Theodosius, Olivares, Joseph Chamberlain, etc who saw what was coming and tried to discard doomed policies and adapt. But they failed because the Texas_Dawg's around them shrugged that everything was AOK, the empire was God's Will and therefore eternal and present problems would just go away.

Yes, only if you run around screaming that the sky is falling and we're all going to die at every new development, good or bad, are you really perceptive and not naive.