I know the term is overused, and one of the reasons perhaps you’ve avoided it here, but we are manifesting collapse, in my opinion, rather than willing it.
We are consumed by the doom cycle, on average, and unable to take the time and introspection as a whole to see the light at the end of the tunnel quite yet. It just quite obviously appears things are done, if that’s all you hear, and happen to be a naive and/or not particularly curious person.
The only way that our situation would truly resemble Rome is if NHI are interested in resource control and capable of invasion, and that certainty remains to be determined. And I’m really not joking, nor holding my breath.
The US still has an awful lot of potential to mature, and it is still so, so experimental in the arc of history. Sometimes it really hits me, living in a largely ethnically homogeneous country, how incredible a thing is being attempted, and how utterly uncontrollable it ultimately is.
The common conception of the hall Rome is mostly about the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, but the Eastern Empire .. the Byzantine Empire .. motored on for another 1000 years until the rise of the Ottoman Empire. If there are parallels from a collapse perspective do they relate just to the Western Empire? (rhetorical question) If so, it could be a looming event, but if it relates to the end of the Byzantine Empire as well, there maybe some juice left to squeeze out if this orange.
I’d love to hear more on the Rome analogy. I’m familiar with Strauss Howe, but not with the other historians you list. I’m a firm believer in cycles. Dalio’s Changing World Order is good too as a framework to try to fit events into.
I don’t think people want a collapse, rather they fear that is the way we are, albeit slowly, headed. Obama promised reform, then so did Trump - both failed to deliver (and there are many theories/reasons why) and the situation for the middle and lower classes has worsened. It seems the powers that be - many nameless and faceless but all with vested interests in the system as it is, have too tight a grip.
America is lucky insofar as it’s a federation of states which should facilitate a more grassroots change at state level (even city/district level). Just as some of the best corporate governance and ideas come from the shop floor, so too the best model for a peaceful, just and equitable societies/means of co-existing (you get from the community in proportion to your hard work, etc). A starting point could be to re learn and teach the founding principles that made America great but which are no longer practised by those at federal level. We at living in the world Eisenhower warned us of, but it can be abandoned and redirected - it won’t be easy and it’ll likely hurt. Failing that, there’s always the French option 😉
I know the term is overused, and one of the reasons perhaps you’ve avoided it here, but we are manifesting collapse, in my opinion, rather than willing it.
We are consumed by the doom cycle, on average, and unable to take the time and introspection as a whole to see the light at the end of the tunnel quite yet. It just quite obviously appears things are done, if that’s all you hear, and happen to be a naive and/or not particularly curious person.
The only way that our situation would truly resemble Rome is if NHI are interested in resource control and capable of invasion, and that certainty remains to be determined. And I’m really not joking, nor holding my breath.
The US still has an awful lot of potential to mature, and it is still so, so experimental in the arc of history. Sometimes it really hits me, living in a largely ethnically homogeneous country, how incredible a thing is being attempted, and how utterly uncontrollable it ultimately is.
Thanks for the article, it was great.
The common conception of the hall Rome is mostly about the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, but the Eastern Empire .. the Byzantine Empire .. motored on for another 1000 years until the rise of the Ottoman Empire. If there are parallels from a collapse perspective do they relate just to the Western Empire? (rhetorical question) If so, it could be a looming event, but if it relates to the end of the Byzantine Empire as well, there maybe some juice left to squeeze out if this orange.
I’d love to hear more on the Rome analogy. I’m familiar with Strauss Howe, but not with the other historians you list. I’m a firm believer in cycles. Dalio’s Changing World Order is good too as a framework to try to fit events into.
I don’t think people want a collapse, rather they fear that is the way we are, albeit slowly, headed. Obama promised reform, then so did Trump - both failed to deliver (and there are many theories/reasons why) and the situation for the middle and lower classes has worsened. It seems the powers that be - many nameless and faceless but all with vested interests in the system as it is, have too tight a grip.
America is lucky insofar as it’s a federation of states which should facilitate a more grassroots change at state level (even city/district level). Just as some of the best corporate governance and ideas come from the shop floor, so too the best model for a peaceful, just and equitable societies/means of co-existing (you get from the community in proportion to your hard work, etc). A starting point could be to re learn and teach the founding principles that made America great but which are no longer practised by those at federal level. We at living in the world Eisenhower warned us of, but it can be abandoned and redirected - it won’t be easy and it’ll likely hurt. Failing that, there’s always the French option 😉