Our Civilization Deserves to Fail

Townhall.com ^ | July 15, 2017 | John Hawkins

[VanShuyten]

Michael Vlahos, a rather squishy conservative historian from John Hopkins, said on the John Batchelor Show that America has lost its sense of purpose and its belief in itself as a world leader.

This, in turn, will lead to America abandoning its role as a defender of others, and eventually itself. He pointed out that there’s no reason to believe that the US will defend any of China’s neighbors from China’s desire to create a sphere of influence.

[IrishBrigade]

We’re too busy working so we can have a nice vacation or a new boat or an early retirement.

to which you can add blowing time and money travelling around the world for no purpose other than to say we did it, and to possess photographs of us grinning aside local landmarks...women seem particularly addicted to this foolishness...

[Bryanw92]

>>to which you can add blowing time and money travelling around the world for no purpose other than to say we did it, and to possess photographs of us grinning aside local landmarks...women seem particularly addicted to this foolishness...

LOL! My wife always wants to take some major trip to Europe for just that reason. I tell her that it looks much better on TV than in real life.

[NYAmerican]

“I suspect our lethargy is due to our never having faced any real collective adversity.”

I agree completely. Add to this a generation who thought they were doing a good thing by “letting their kids decide for themselves”, and an incredibly sly and patient communist enemy who, realizing there would be no military victory, was ingenious and patient enough to infiltrate and indoctrinate in all of our institutions, you have a “perfect storm” for the decimation of the best civilization ever known to Man.

[x]

Unfortunately, it's the only civilization we've got and a lot will go down with it if it fails.

What's missing from a lot of the discussion though, is an understanding of the connection between the good version of American civilization that people like and the bad version that they hate.

It's not like evil communist magicians killed the one and left the other in its place.

How did we get from one to the other? And was there anything in what was that gave us what we have now?

[Rockingham]

This kind of existential angst is misplaced. It was rife in the 1920s and 30s, but the country rallied to the challenges of the Great Depression and WW II. Similarly, during the Cold War and its episodic military crises and conflicts, civilian life was usually easy, undisciplined, and prosperous even as the USSR grew more menacing. Yet it was the Communist movement that collapsed, not the United States, which has gone from strength to strength.

Notably, the attractiveness of life in the West fatally undermined the authority of Communist regimes and helped to end the USSR and its empire more or less peacefully. Similarly, for Muslims, the freedom and prosperity of the United States and the West are a refutation of the harsh doctrines of Islam -- and for Islamists, they are a provocation.

Arguably, the US debt load is unsustainable on our present trajectory, but there is also reason to believe that a combination of higher economic growth and programmatic reforms could change that. Indeed, the greater challenge may be coping with impending technological and economic changes that will make for major changes in American life. What will we do with our time when the usual work week is three days and we can look forward to vigorous adult lifespans of 250 plus years?

[The KG9 Kid]

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's these "Our society is SICK, I tell you! SICK! SICK! SICK! We DESERVE to have God's retribution strike us down!" idiots.

Best thing is for people like this to seek mental help.

[Rummyfan]

Well said!

[zeestephen]

We?

Our?

Leave me out of this argument.

I’ve been a Conservative Republican for 60 years.

Almost no policies I supported have ever became law.

And if they did become law, they were never seriously enforced.

Bottom Line - hard core American Conservatives have been a shrinking political minority since Teddy Roosevelt became president almost 120 years ago.

[ought-six]

I think his point is that the failure was brought on by itself. In other words, suicide. Logically, if one creates the means of failure and acts upon them, then the result is deserved.

[foreverfree]

bump

[DoodleBob]

This is why CNN's blackmail saga is so important. Since Trump's election, the media has come to realize that not only do many Americans not like the media, but that Deplorables don't respond to their dog whistle of whatever ____ism they're pushing.

In the past the media and all statists could count on conservatives backing down and even apologizing when called names. Now, they face a revived America that won't back down when called names - and will go on the offensive.

If this pattern carries on, eventually the label of #FakeNews will be successfully hung around the necks of the media propagandists. The ballast people will catch on and then the media's influence will wane. It won't end, it just won't work as well as it did for 70 years.