eon3
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1:03:01 · 624K views · Jan 23, 2008
Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback and Sorrows of Empire, lectures on parallels between the decline of the Roman and Soviet empires and the United States. He argues the US shows the same symptoms: overextension, corruption, and an inability to reform.
Cited in threads on American decline, civil unrest and economic crisis as a classic statement of the imperial-decay thesis.
7 comments from Hacker News
Yep. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Actual exceptionalism ended coinciding with the end of WW2. It's America's slow and steady decline like Rome. 250 years / 10 generations is about all a civilization typically lasts. Apathy, corruption, incompetence, disorder, inequality, poverty, decay, tyrants, and ultimately: dissolution. Here's an insightful prognostication by the late, great Chalmers Johnson around 2005: this video
I thought this was a possibility, however there’s not much to fight for, except chaos, discontent and something new, so it’s more likely America/western civ would collapse within 0-30 years (collapse tends to precipitate quickly), if nothing major socio-politically is done to stabilize the ship. [LINK] “America is Done” Chris Hedges on C-Span [LINK] “Decline of Western Civilization” Peter Thiel [LINK] “Decline of Empires” Chalmers Johnson this video ^- These aren’t exactly conspiracy theorist-centric nutters, but people known for being more right than most people v- Btw, just in-case anyone isn’t convinced yet corporate media will “save us” Phil Donahue on being booted from MSNBC [LINK] Jesse Ventura on govt abuse of secrecy and Wikileaks [LINK] Cenk Uygur on “mutual-separation” from MSNBC [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] Thom Hartmann on an impeding collapse (wrong year, obviously) due to massive corruption and inequality [LINK] Amy Goodman arrested for doing her job [LINK] Assassinations of journalists continues to climb worldwide, and when it and censorship happens in your country, that’s when the real decline accelerates [LINK] ^- It’s hard to say when/how much will happen or how constructive the grassroot can be because most people tend to automatically dismiss these “dots” as “conspiracy theorist rhetoric” that “doesn’t affect them.” Occasionally possible: ”It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair
Exactly. Chalmers Johnson and Chris Hedges concur. America: the Farewall Tour - [LINK] DECLINE of EMPIRES: The Signs of Decay - this video Today, in Paradise, the power was out for most of the day... like Mogadishu or Baghdad. America, like a slowly-boiled frog, has become a third-world country: - no universal healthcare - grotesque inequality: lower average pay, unlivable wages, more billionaires, millions of homeless. - wealth transfer from the poor to the rich through tariffs, fines, fees and other taxes - crumbling infrastructure - tens of thousands of structurally-deficient bridges and crossings - apathetic, uncaring police letting crime go unpunished and misery flourish Americans don't know how bad they have it... it's great for the very rich, but it's horrible for most people including the aspirational rich who will never be so and yet vote/work against their own interests and be cowardly traitors against We The People.
"Decline of Empires: The Signs of Decay": Jan 22, 2008; Chalmers Johnson. this video Apathy, learned helplessness, inaction, cult-like fervor, magical thinking, pan-colonial ambitions, and inability to fund or defend itself lead a society to ruin. The thing is that every 8-12 generations (250+-50 years), a civilization must rework or recommit itself or it slides into decline and decay. No rampant conservative moral panic crusade, violent upheaval, civil war, or totalitarian junta can rebuild what divides left or right, or rebalances fewer haves and many more have nots.
The simplified answer: the US is a late-stage civilization in gradual decline since either post-WW2 or about 1960. The "frog" has been "boiling" slowly for a long time and is almost cooked. See also: - America: The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges - Chalmers Johnson's Decline of Empires: Signs of Decay this video - The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon - The Rise and Fall of the Great Empires by Taylor