Will internet search engines ever get better? They are supposed to be so good now, but I don't believe it. All they do is match keywords, buzzwords. And then use your search as the input to an advertising algorithm. They don't respond to thoughts or ideas.
For instance, we are on the eve of "our" most obscene national holiday. A more optimistic person would have merely said "most ludicrous and hypocritical" holiday. I have trained myself to tune it out, rather than dwell on it with sourness, and then lash out at what America has become.
But it would be better to find something more constructive. What if internet search engines were actually good, and I came to them with a thought instead of a keyword? What history books or novels could I read that would inform on the situation an American finds them-self in, today?
Who else has experienced pride in their country when they were young, and then grew to despise their country? Was it only grouchy old men who did so, and if that were true, did that alone invalidate their opinions? How did they handle the transition from Pride to Disgust? Did they manage to put it to good use?
There are probably illustrations from societies that have experienced defeat. Consider what the southern states went through, in light of the novel, "Gone with the Wind." Or consider what Germany went through in the 1920s.
But those are defeat-based pessimisms. In contrast, modern America has not been conquered by outsiders, militarily or otherwise. Perhaps the existence of nuclear weapons will ensure that it never will be conquered militarily. Instead, it has merely degenerated, voluntarily, to a travesty of what it once was. The most relevant society and historical epoch might be nominally-successful Rome, which degenerated into a militaristic empire by the time of Julius Caesar.
For instance, we are on the eve of "our" most obscene national holiday. A more optimistic person would have merely said "most ludicrous and hypocritical" holiday. I have trained myself to tune it out, rather than dwell on it with sourness, and then lash out at what America has become.
But it would be better to find something more constructive. What if internet search engines were actually good, and I came to them with a thought instead of a keyword? What history books or novels could I read that would inform on the situation an American finds them-self in, today?
Who else has experienced pride in their country when they were young, and then grew to despise their country? Was it only grouchy old men who did so, and if that were true, did that alone invalidate their opinions? How did they handle the transition from Pride to Disgust? Did they manage to put it to good use?
There are probably illustrations from societies that have experienced defeat. Consider what the southern states went through, in light of the novel, "Gone with the Wind." Or consider what Germany went through in the 1920s.
But those are defeat-based pessimisms. In contrast, modern America has not been conquered by outsiders, militarily or otherwise. Perhaps the existence of nuclear weapons will ensure that it never will be conquered militarily. Instead, it has merely degenerated, voluntarily, to a travesty of what it once was. The most relevant society and historical epoch might be nominally-successful Rome, which degenerated into a militaristic empire by the time of Julius Caesar.
Comments
I don't think you are going to find it recorded in history. The United States of America is making that history as we live it. I don't think there has ever been an "indispensable nation", as President Obama claims, that has intentionally transformed itself out of existence.
Rome is held up as an example but it did not fall because it intentionally chose that path. The Russian Empire fell to the Soviet Empire, which also fell, but I don't think that either of those chose to fall. What you describe as "Modern America .. .has merely degenerated, voluntarily..." is what I am calling an intentional chosen path to give up an Empire.
This this new kind of fall, one that is based on a transformed culture. I don't know of any other historical cultural change that is like what is happening to the American Empire. Maybe that period of time moving into, and the out of, the Dark Ages? But, there was no "indispensable nation" then, so once again I can not think of any historical comparative. Alternative cultural fiction, as opposed to alternative historical fiction, may be the place to look for an answer?
The Germans were the indispensable nation in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and look what happened to them.
The Turks from 1400 to 1918.
Spain in the 1500s.
I guess I don't see why the USA is so unique, other than it is the first Hegemon in the post-nuclear age.
Chris
Chris
People get the Government they deserve.