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No Decline Here - Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.
National Review Online ^ | May 24, 2007 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 05/24/2007 9:54:49 PM PDT by neverdem







No Decline Here
Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.

By Victor Davis Hanson

The suicide murders and roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan sicken Americans. Soon-to-be nuclear Iran seems loonier than nuclear North Korea. American debt keeps piling up in China and Japan. And we think of angry Venezuela, the Middle East, and Russia every time we fill up — if we can afford to fill up.

Then listen to Al Gore on global warming. Or hear Jimmy Carter on the current president. The common denominator is American “decline.”

Books by liberals assure us that our “empire” is kaput. Brace for the inevitable fate of Rome. Conservatives are just as glum. For them, we are also Romans — but the more decadent variety, eaten away from the inside.

In response, many bored Americans turn instead to the la-la land of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Yet American Cassandras are old stuff. Grim Charles Lindberg in the late 1930s lectured a Depression-era America that Hitler’s new order in Germany could only be appeased, never opposed.

After World War II, it wasn’t long before the Soviet Union ended our short-lived status as sole nuclear superpower. And when Eastern Europe and China were lost to communism, it was proof, for many, that democratic capitalism was passé. “We will bury you,” Nikita Khrushchev promised us.

After the collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1991, America proclaimed itself at the “end of history” — meaning that the spread of our style of democratic capitalism was now inevitable. Now a mere 16 years later, some are just as sure we approach our own end.

But our rivals are weaker and America is far stronger than many think.

Take oil. With oil prices at nearly $70 a barrel, Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hugo Chavez seem invincible as they rally anti-American feeling.

But if we find alternate energy sources, or reduce slightly our oil hunger, we can defang all three rather quickly. None of their countries have a middle class or a culture of entrepreneurship to discover and disseminate new knowledge.

Russia and Europe are shrinking. China is an aging nation of only children. The only thing the hard-working Chinese fear more than their bankrupt Communist dictatorship is getting rid of it.

True, the economies of China and India have made amazing progress. But both have rocky rendezvous ahead with all the social and cultural problems that we long ago addressed in the 20th century.

And European elites can’t blame their problems — a bullying Russia, Islamic terrorists, unassimilated minorities, and high unemployment — all on George Bush’s swagger and accent. The recent elections of Angela Merkel in Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy in France suggest that Europe’s cheap anti-Americanism may be ending, and that our practices of more open markets, lower taxes, and less state control are preferable to the European status quo.

In truth, a never-stronger America is being tested as never before. The world is watching whether we win or lose in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Middle East is either going to reform or remain an oil-rich tribal mess that endangers the entire world.

A better way to assess our chances at maintaining our preeminence is simply to ask the same questions that are the historical barometers of our nation’s success or failure: Does any nation have a constitution comparable to ours? Does merit — or religion, tribe, or class — mostly gauge success or failure in America? What nation is as free, stable, and transparent as the U.S.?

Try becoming a fully accepted citizen of China or Japan if you were not born Chinese or Japanese. Try running for national office in India from the lower caste. Try writing a critical oped in Russia or hiring a brilliant female to run a mosque, university, or hospital in most of the Middle East. Ask where MRI scans, Wal-Mart, iPods, the Internet, or F-18s came from.

In the last 60 years, we have been warned in succession that new paradigms in racially pure Germany, the Soviet workers’ paradise, Japan Inc., and now 24/7 China all were about to displace the United States. None did. All have had relative moments of amazing success — but in the end none proved as resilient, flexible, and adaptable as America.

That brings us to the greatest strength of the United States: radical self-critique. We Americans are worrywarts, always believing we’re on the verge of extinction. And so, to “renew,” “reinvent,” or “save” America, we whip ourselves up about “wars” on poverty, drugs, and cancer; space “races;” missile “gaps;” literacy “crusades;” and “campaigns” against litter, waste, and smoking.

In other words, we nail-biters have always been paranoid that we must change and improve in order to survive. And thus we usually do — just in time.

© 2007 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: unitedstates; vdh; victordavishanson
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1 posted on 05/24/2007 9:54:52 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: Tolik

Ping


2 posted on 05/24/2007 9:56:00 PM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem

Have to disagree with author Hanson’s conclusion. We are in decline, and in large part that decline is caused by the same political Left that’s most talking about it. That’s about all today’s Left has to offer: criticizing the country while doing all it can to destroy it! There’s a difference between constructive and destructive criticism, but the Left and its institutions only know the destructive type.


3 posted on 05/24/2007 10:21:39 PM PDT by justiceseeker93
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To: neverdem
IMO Mr. Hansen does not have a good grip on tactical supply chain integrity, especially insofar as extant domestic substitutes are concerned.
4 posted on 05/24/2007 10:22:30 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (Duncan Hunter for President)
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To: justiceseeker93

I agree with his conclusion. We’re not in decline and the leftist socialist anti-Americans can’t destroy us.


5 posted on 05/24/2007 10:29:14 PM PDT by hsalaw
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To: neverdem

It is our rotten public education system that is our downfall. John Taylor Gatto has not gotten much mention lately on this site, but for anyone who has not read him, his very insightful book can be read online. He makes a point that citizens of colonial times were better read than most today who have been through our education system.

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm


6 posted on 05/24/2007 10:35:04 PM PDT by Biblebelter (I can't believe people still watch TV with the sound on.)
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To: neverdem

I like his attitude.


7 posted on 05/24/2007 10:51:19 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: neverdem
We ARE in decline. Our government has grown too large, and has become unable to deal with a rapidly changing world. A world that is increasingly ganging-up against us. The Democrats are trying to disable the country to the point that they reagin power in '08, but fail to realize that if and when they do take over, there may not be much of a country left to run, and it will be impossible at that point to rescue it with THE VERY POLICIES that got us here in the first place!!!

While this government is arguing about Speedy Gonzales, they are failing to drill in Alaska or build refineries (local govt. problem) to relieve foreign oil dependence, fight the Chinese poison attacks, cut spending and wasteful programs, SEAL THE BORDER, and control LEGAL immigration. While they battle, America slowly dies.

8 posted on 05/24/2007 10:55:59 PM PDT by Captainpaintball (immigration without assimilation means the death of this nation)
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To: neverdem

btt


9 posted on 05/24/2007 11:09:36 PM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: neverdem
Books by liberals assure us that our “empire” is kaput. Brace for the inevitable fate of Rome.

Thus, their hero is "Billigula".

10 posted on 05/24/2007 11:12:57 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: neverdem
"None of their countries have a middle class or a culture of entrepreneurship to discover and disseminate new knowledge."

And that's not something to brag about. That's real trouble.

11 posted on 05/25/2007 1:31:15 AM PDT by StAnDeliver
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To: Captainpaintball

I agree. The left mostly hates America. They are quite insane. Ask them about the wonder of George Washington. Remind them of the principles of the Constitution, and the seem to agree with us, it seems that they just don’t realize that our Constitution needs to be defended against powerful, deceptive and subversive forces in the world. Instead, they are prone to be deceived by these evil forces. Just insane.


12 posted on 05/25/2007 2:11:56 AM PDT by GregoryFul (how'd that get there?)
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To: neverdem

The author is correct that the U.S. still leads the world in innovation, freedom, fairness, etc. On the other hand, just because the rest of the world is worse, doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re not declining as a society. The Roman Empire in the 5th century was probably still a leading society compared to most of the rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t declining. Does anyone here believe that American morals aren’t declining? And, as other have said, our educational system seems to be declining, as well.


13 posted on 05/25/2007 2:25:07 AM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: Captainpaintball

Its not just the dems trying to disable the country. Reps will not save us. They are intentionally destroying the country. We will soon be a part of the north american union which will be a part of the new world order


14 posted on 05/25/2007 3:01:09 AM PDT by winodog (We are being set up for bubba and the beast, part two.)
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To: Biblebelter

He makes a point that citizens of colonial times were better read than most today who have been through our education system.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There can be no doubt of it! Young people today are mostly UNREAD! We have millions walking around with no idea how the nation came into being or how it is SUPPOSED TO BE governed! We live in the information age and the most important information of all is ignored and forgotten!


15 posted on 05/25/2007 3:24:38 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Does anybody still believe this is a free country?)
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To: irishjuggler

And, as other have said, our educational system seems to be declining, as well.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We have precious little educational system left, it has been replaced by a job training system. University graduates are largely ignorant of most of the knowledge of history and government that was required of a student advancing from grade school to high school in the fifties.


16 posted on 05/25/2007 3:30:47 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Does anybody still believe this is a free country?)
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To: winodog

Its not just the dems trying to disable the country. Reps will not save us. They are intentionally destroying the country. We will soon be a part of the north american union which will be a part of the new world order

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Oh, how I wish I could say you are wrong!


17 posted on 05/25/2007 3:32:08 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Does anybody still believe this is a free country?)
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To: neverdem

The danger that Hansen seems to overlook, is that the Western elites see the West as indefensible, and undefendable - that is, it is not worth defending, and cannot be defended, therefore, they are trying to cozy up to the adversaries of the West. It is nothing new - Teddy reportedly tried to collaborate with the KGB to undermine the Reagan Administration, and others cozied up to Castro, et al. What is new is the large numbers of ordinary folks that they seem to have won over.

I see this as a result of the “long march” of the left into our institutions. They have taken over the media, academia, foundations, and large parts of the civil service. As a result they have huge resources at their disposal for bringing the folks to their point of view, and for frustrating the efforts of the opposition.

I see a danger of an American civil war within ten years. I say this, not as a disaster prediction, but, as a warning sign.


18 posted on 05/25/2007 4:46:32 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: neverdem
Conservatives are just as glum.

Not me. I have unbounded faith in America's future.

19 posted on 05/25/2007 5:53:04 AM PDT by HeartlandOfAmerica ("Global warming" and "Climate Change" are the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated by confidence (wo)men!)
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To: Daveinyork

“The danger that Hansen seems to overlook, is that the Western elites see the West as indefensible, and undefendable - that is, it is not worth defending, and cannot be defended, therefore, they are trying to cozy up to the adversaries of the West. It is nothing new - Teddy reportedly tried to collaborate with the KGB to undermine the Reagan Administration, and others cozied up to Castro, et al. What is new is the large numbers of ordinary folks that they seem to have won over.

I see this as a result of the “long march” of the left into our institutions. They have taken over the media, academia, foundations, and large parts of the civil service. As a result they have huge resources at their disposal for bringing the folks to their point of view, and for frustrating the efforts of the opposition.

I see a danger of an American civil war within ten years. I say this, not as a disaster prediction, but, as a warning sign.”

Good points. I don’t see a civil war coming but rather something much worse, nuclear war. Iran and North Korea are loose cannons and puppets of Russia and China. Iran will supply nuclear material to radical Islam causing a nuclear 911 or directly attack the US via a ship 10 miles off of NYC. A nuke attack on Tel Aviv at the same time would be likely. How do you think we will respond? I guess it depends on who is in power but whoever it is will face another great depression and likely conventional warfare in the Middle East, Korean Peninsula and perhaps China itself.

Our enemies know something very important. That our Achilles heel is oil and that they need not conquer us, but only interrupt our flow of oil to turn us into a 3rd world country overnight. They also know we will be largely energy dependant in the next twenty years. With weak leaders in the USA & Israel, the Achilles heel, a weak EU and communists still in power, we will see WWIII within the next decade. They will lose, but society will be leveled. We will pull back together as a nation under God but will suffer greatly for chasing after the god of self instead of the God of our forefathers and our Republic where we use to serve Him and each other.


20 posted on 05/25/2007 9:04:02 AM PDT by quant5
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