I was in a Sunday school class once where the teacher the teacherer gave a list of social problems and asked if class members could think of examples of each. They ranged from "growing acceptance of pornography" to "quality of goods and services declines". Class members were easily able to give examples. At the end of his list he revealed the punch line: He hadn't made up the list by looking at the news. The list came from a documentary about the causes of the fall of Rome made in the 1960s.
I wonder if in the final days of the Roman Empire, if the average Roman thought, "Oh no, the empire is dying! What can we do?" Or if they thought more like, "Sure, we have some problems. Every society has problems. They're no big deal. And hey, did you see the chariot race in the Circus Maximus yesterday?" Did they say, "Sure, we abandoned a few thousand people when we pulled the troops out of Britannia. They should have seen it coming and left long ago. And yeah, the government has given up even trying to stop barbarians from crossing the border into Lower Moesia. But hey, we can use the cheap labor. Okay, the emperor molests little boys. What he does in the privacy of his own palace is no one else's business." Etc. What's really scary is, those issues I just mentioned were all real issues in ancient Rome.
Good, sobering column, John. I started to read Romney's Atlantic article, but it became impossible for me to stomach his absurd comparison of the sins of the Right as being balanced out by the sins of the Left. It's ridiculous to compare the two sides, which of course is why it's so hard to compromise anymore. The Truth is irrelevant to the Left; they want what they want and will use any means necessary to get the power to control people's lives, and incidently to loot the country while they're at it. Unfortunately, when you get climate change wrong, everything else goes to hell with it. Wreck the economy? Hey, it's worth it to reduce the global temp by .5 degrees Centigrade. (Oh, we'll figure out how to make those darned Indians and Chinese join in somehow someday.) The abandonment of Roman virtues into degeneracy lead to their downfall, the same thing is happening here as we abandon Christianity. Social media and the leftist slant will accelerate this process; who will stop it? I tell you, I see and feel the Bidenflation bite harder everyday, and I only wonder how bad things will get- we've still got more than 2 years with that senile old crowbait in the White House. I'm sorry to sound so pessimistic but it looks like we're in a gathering storm.
WELL THE FOURTH TRUTH OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE DOES SAY: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
A quarter of Americans open to taking up arms against government, poll says: Survey of 1,000 registered US voters also reveals that most Americans agree government is ‘corrupt and rigged.’
You illustrate some harsh truths but what will it take to awaken people, many like myself, a mature woman living in a red state, divorced, employed, and financially independent for someone living a modest lifestyle? I don't think I'm particularly representative of the population of my demographic at large, but I am representative of the demographic in my neighborhood, which is solidly white middle-class. We are a mix of conservative and liberal/progressive, skewing slightly conservative. Few of the problems that comprise your list seem to affect me very much, fortunately so.
I am concerned and worry for those who are affected, because at some point, perhaps not too far in the future, those who are suffering from inflation that is unlikely to abate, unaffordable basic living expenses, insecure living conditions, children from single parent homes in government schools becoming ever more corrupted, employed by woke businesses, with HR departments tightening the leash to the point of strangulation, will reach a denouement. A backlash will occur and then I will certainly be affected.
Half the population does not want or desire what the other half wants and desires. Politicians are in it for themselves. Our major institutions are corrupt and unfixable. The elites are philanthropaths, a very accurate term coined by Margaret Anna Alice, who writes through the Looking Glass here on substack. We do not have an honest press. Boomers have had their heyday, but only the older ones may outlive the demise of Social Security and Medicare.
There is a "bad moon rising", to steal the title of a CCR hit.
Yet, I live in relative ease, safety and comfort, more than my basic needs met, reading your substack and quite a few others in a state of morbid curiosity if not to vicariously experience what is foreign to my experience. I'm probably not that unusual. If or when true hardship becomes inescapable, when the shit hits the fan to put it crudely, denial will be a luxury no one can afford.
I was in a Sunday school class once where the teacher the teacherer gave a list of social problems and asked if class members could think of examples of each. They ranged from "growing acceptance of pornography" to "quality of goods and services declines". Class members were easily able to give examples. At the end of his list he revealed the punch line: He hadn't made up the list by looking at the news. The list came from a documentary about the causes of the fall of Rome made in the 1960s.
I wonder if in the final days of the Roman Empire, if the average Roman thought, "Oh no, the empire is dying! What can we do?" Or if they thought more like, "Sure, we have some problems. Every society has problems. They're no big deal. And hey, did you see the chariot race in the Circus Maximus yesterday?" Did they say, "Sure, we abandoned a few thousand people when we pulled the troops out of Britannia. They should have seen it coming and left long ago. And yeah, the government has given up even trying to stop barbarians from crossing the border into Lower Moesia. But hey, we can use the cheap labor. Okay, the emperor molests little boys. What he does in the privacy of his own palace is no one else's business." Etc. What's really scary is, those issues I just mentioned were all real issues in ancient Rome.
Good, sobering column, John. I started to read Romney's Atlantic article, but it became impossible for me to stomach his absurd comparison of the sins of the Right as being balanced out by the sins of the Left. It's ridiculous to compare the two sides, which of course is why it's so hard to compromise anymore. The Truth is irrelevant to the Left; they want what they want and will use any means necessary to get the power to control people's lives, and incidently to loot the country while they're at it. Unfortunately, when you get climate change wrong, everything else goes to hell with it. Wreck the economy? Hey, it's worth it to reduce the global temp by .5 degrees Centigrade. (Oh, we'll figure out how to make those darned Indians and Chinese join in somehow someday.) The abandonment of Roman virtues into degeneracy lead to their downfall, the same thing is happening here as we abandon Christianity. Social media and the leftist slant will accelerate this process; who will stop it? I tell you, I see and feel the Bidenflation bite harder everyday, and I only wonder how bad things will get- we've still got more than 2 years with that senile old crowbait in the White House. I'm sorry to sound so pessimistic but it looks like we're in a gathering storm.
WELL THE FOURTH TRUTH OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE DOES SAY: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
A quarter of Americans open to taking up arms against government, poll says: Survey of 1,000 registered US voters also reveals that most Americans agree government is ‘corrupt and rigged.’
h/t The Redneck Intellectual by C. Bradley Thompson <cbradleythompson@substack.com>
You illustrate some harsh truths but what will it take to awaken people, many like myself, a mature woman living in a red state, divorced, employed, and financially independent for someone living a modest lifestyle? I don't think I'm particularly representative of the population of my demographic at large, but I am representative of the demographic in my neighborhood, which is solidly white middle-class. We are a mix of conservative and liberal/progressive, skewing slightly conservative. Few of the problems that comprise your list seem to affect me very much, fortunately so.
I am concerned and worry for those who are affected, because at some point, perhaps not too far in the future, those who are suffering from inflation that is unlikely to abate, unaffordable basic living expenses, insecure living conditions, children from single parent homes in government schools becoming ever more corrupted, employed by woke businesses, with HR departments tightening the leash to the point of strangulation, will reach a denouement. A backlash will occur and then I will certainly be affected.
Half the population does not want or desire what the other half wants and desires. Politicians are in it for themselves. Our major institutions are corrupt and unfixable. The elites are philanthropaths, a very accurate term coined by Margaret Anna Alice, who writes through the Looking Glass here on substack. We do not have an honest press. Boomers have had their heyday, but only the older ones may outlive the demise of Social Security and Medicare.
There is a "bad moon rising", to steal the title of a CCR hit.
Yet, I live in relative ease, safety and comfort, more than my basic needs met, reading your substack and quite a few others in a state of morbid curiosity if not to vicariously experience what is foreign to my experience. I'm probably not that unusual. If or when true hardship becomes inescapable, when the shit hits the fan to put it crudely, denial will be a luxury no one can afford.