'America in Decline' Narrative Finally in Decline?

[pbrower2a]

Other countries have been catching up to us in economic development, technology, and educational achievement -- and in some cases, surpassing us. We are not alone in having constitutional government.  But such is a good thing. Would we be more troubled if such alternatives as monarchical absolutism, Marxism-Leninism, racist nationalism, or theocracy were gaining on political ideals similar to ours?

Worse, if we had a nasty dictatorship that people wanted to overthrow or at least emigrate from, wouldn't we be in trouble? A political system such as the Soviet Union can put on an extended show of rigidity and be rotting from the inside.  A political order could be offering itself as the Universal State (Toynbee) of an entire civilization in the last stage of rot of that civilization and perhaps extending the scope of that civilization into places in which it is unwelcome -- like Nazi Germany or Thug Japan during World War II -- and we are clearly not that. We have a political and economic order with far more flexibility than did the Roman Empire in late-classical times, the Byzantine Empire of the middle of the Middle Ages, Imperial Russia a century ago, or the ottoman Empire in the 19th Century.

As my posting record indicates, I see signs of potential rot mostly from the Right in people who would atomize us politically, promote pseudoscience and mythologized history in an attempt to unify us, and establish a social order that causes us to chafe (one at once hierarchical, repressive, and grossly inequitable). Just imagine the slave interests getting complete dominion in America and the 1915 Klan (which had most of the hallmarks of a fascist movement).      

  

[pbrower2a]

Everybody knows the blackout in the Super Bowl pretty much symbolizes the state of America today. At this point, homosexuals are the only group of people who believe the nation is on an upward trajectory.

When Dubya was President, America was very much in decline. Business ethics were at their worst, government eroded as the President gave real power to Karl Rove, and America was in a speculative boom that could only go bust. We got into one costly war because the President ignored intelligence reports and another because the President lied about a casus belli.  Barack Obama runs a clean operation, like him or not. Any prosperity that we now have is being achieved the old-fashioned way of thrift, work, and investment. I might feel differently had Mitt Romney been elected and a Republican-dominated Congtress enacted one anti-human act after another on behalf of tycoons, big landowners, and executives.

Recognition of LGBT rights is a sign of human decency, and this happens as America becomes increasingly intolerant of spouse abuse and child abuse.   

New Orleans is -- well, New Orleans. It's a place with First World costs and Third World inefficiency.   

The cure for what ails us? Bring back the emphasis on  liberal arts in undergrad education -- the Great Books approach -- and our leaders in every aspect of life will act with more principle and humaneness.

[pbrower2a]

Some aspects of American life are in decline. We have an intensification of economic inequality that relates to economic elites getting more power over people and the political system and not from innovation in desirable goods and services. Extreme inequality implies the inevitable destruction of the small-business sector and the degradation of innovation. Our economic elites are thoroughly ruthless and irresponsible, and they on the whole support a reactionary set of political values. We could get a soft set of rules for elites but harsh ones with brutal enforcement upon the proles, a situation ill-suited to public concord.

Add to that our sordid mass culture replete with mindless depravity; a "values-free" educational system that imparts no sense of duty upon future elites of bureaucrats, managers or owners; and a widespread contempt for thought. Our Constitution has seams that have existed from its enactment, but political figures at all times until recently years have scrupulously avoided exploiting them out of fear of consequences.

Nothing about the current rot is irreversible. The political climate can change swiftly in a democracy -- more swiftly than systems with greater rigidity and brittleness. We still have time, but do we have the will as We the People?

That can  change. It may be far easier to keep a democracy (however flawed) from going into ruin than an oligarchy or an outright tyranny.