Posted on 07/04/2014 12:25:14 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
"The United States cannot afford another decline like that which has characterized the past decade and a half.... [O]nly self-delusion can keep us from admitting our decline to ourselves."
-Henry Kissinger, 1961
For all our optimism, Americans have always worried about our place in the world. It's in our DNA, and it helps drive our renewal. To borrow from the great political scientist Samuel Huntington, "[T]he United States is unlikely to decline so long as its public is periodically convinced that it is about to decline. The declinists play an indispensable role in preventing what they are predicting."
When Kissinger wrote the above words in 1961, he did have some valid concerns. At the time, the U.S. economy was struggling to grow its way out of a recession. The Soviet Union had launched the world's first artificial satellite, known as Sputnik, into orbit. The nation went into a panic, thinking we had fallen behind in technological innovation and would soon be outspent and outmatched by Moscow.
And yet the decade and a half that was the subject of Kissinger's fears -- the period from the end of World War II until John F. Kennedy's administration -- is now seen by most historians as an era of unparalleled American economic growth and power. The decade that followed was even more prosperous, ending with the United States, not the Soviet Union, making the first lunar landing. And a mere 30 years after Kissinger wrote those words, the Soviet Union had ceased to exist entirely.
Every 10 years or so, a new bout of profound pessimism has swept the nation. In his fine book, The Myth of America's Decline, the German journalist and author Josef Joffe documents these periodic waves of declinism....
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
Fences and walls, with guard posts.
More importantly, his analysis is unlikely to even accidentally veer close to reality.
Thanks, I didn’t notice that.
Keep drinking yer Kool-Aid™. Throw in some pot and LSD.
It's the only way to really be sure.
I just didn’t want people to be mislead, that’s all.
It isn’t remaining as a place to make money and a dominant military that interests me, the things that I cared about, being American, and sustaining “America” are already done, a thing of the past.
What made us special, and America, what we fought for, is already lost.
America holds together during declines because our bedrock traditions are intact and respected. We get our fill of a counter-culture and we then pull back to the things that are tried and true.
Now does anyone think those traditions are still intact today?
No, I didn’t look like I normally do as to the author’s background.
Pretty rediculous quote by Kissinger given the year he made it, since the postwar years though the fifties were America’s peak.
Oh, you made a mistake, did you????? How dare you; we never make mistakes or jump the gun here!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, still #1 in over-the-top frivolous consumerism, enabling all the rest (I'm not impressed). Equally 'impressive' that we have overtaken the former Soviet Union and China in degree of centrally-managed economic stimulus, blowing one world-class bubble after another, with no actual production to show for it, but a lot of artificially-inflated asset classes.
The number of FReepers who NEVER open an article and read the full story before they comment on the thread is scary. It is almost as if they want to be misled.
Isn’t Tom Donilon an Obamabot??
I think the smart solution is a national divorce, so the Left can have their “best practices” demonstration project on their territory and we can go back to a constitutional republic on our side. Sound good?
Sounds very good to me. I want to separate from them because they would not participate in nor appreciate the sweat, blood and tears necessary to bring us back to a constitutional republic. They can go to hell.
I still think this will be the Chinese century. We are clearly declining for ll of the reasons you read about here everyday.
India doesn’t seem to be aggressive about taking control of international issues.
China has stepped up imperialism making a grab for everything in the north west Pacific. They are building up their military. They can buy whatever they want. They have strong presence on most continents. Now restricted by an EPA.
Short of another massive revolution, they are full speed ahead.
Decline Ha...just wait till the Green River Formation comes on line...3 Trillion barrels of oil and 1 trillion recoverable with today’s technology....according to the USGS
Abundant natural resources mean nothing with a criminal/corrupt government at the helm. Just ask the Republic of Congo.
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