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Treasure State Treasury
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Sweet Sounds Way Out Yonder
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Midnight in Missoula
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Unsequestered Snow Melts
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What Would Barry Think?
March 7, 2013 | 10 comments
The Nation's Pulse
We’re History
It took Rome a lot longer.
“….the Roman government appeared everyday less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. The taxes were multiplied with the public distress; economy was neglected in proportion as it became necessary…. If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.” — Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
In New York City and Philadelphia “flashmobs” rob and vandalize newsstands and stores. This is a national phenomenon. In Chicago, the police department now won’t immediately respond to 911 calls if they involve post-burglaries, petty, or non-violent crimes. They’re too busy dealing with the daily carnage that is the nation’s highest murder rate, one that bested the number of military fatalities recorded in Afghanistan in 2012. When crazy people shoot up movie theaters and elementary school classrooms, we’re told it’s the gun’s fault. On a lighter note, the Wall Street Journal recently informed us that the demands of hip-hop fashion dictates that boys insist — despite the protestations of Mom, Dad, and school administrators — on wearing shorts to school in bitter winter weather. The girls prefer flip flops as their toes turn blue while waiting for the school bus. “Things fall apart; The centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” (William Butler Yeats).
The schools are an administrative and intellectual wreck, and kids not knowing how to even dress themselves is a good metaphor for their current state. Those students, especially those of college age, are subject to that ironclad liberal orthodoxy of cultural Marxism commonly called political correctness, with resulting hate speech codes, the gist of which is that the kids are taught to despise America’s institutions, civic traditions, and the very constitutional sinews of free speech and opinion. Anyway, the latter is a moot point: because they learn so little history, soon their ignorance of the important aspects of the American experience will be total. College campuses are hideous islands of totalitarianism on a national landscape that is more and more reflecting their toxic example. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity” (Yeats again).
We’re obsessed with protecting women from “domestic violence.” The U.S. Senate has passed the “Violence Against Women Act” and sent it to the House of Representatives. The media bludgeons us with related stories, and multiple government programs function to assist such unfortunate souls. This is driven by modern feminism, which also favors women serving on the frontlines in the boiling cauldron of war, where, according to a feature story in Rolling Stone magazine lately, the military suffers a raging epidemic of sexual assault. “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men” (George Orwell).
The U.S. Post Office recently announced that it is abolishing first class delivery on Saturdays beginning in August. The USPO seems to be taking a cue from the newspaper and network news business model of telling the public that it is essential to the public good, while at the same time skipping publication days, cutting back on home delivery, and shrinking its staffs as circulation, ad revenues, and ratings sink. A digitally-distracted America less and less buys the product (from both post office and media), especially the kids (see schools exegesis above). And the media-driven Obama cult-of-personality doesn’t sit well with half the body politic. Of course, the emperor’s cheerleader-eunuchs in the nation’s newsrooms don’t see it that way; marketing has never been a journalistic forte. Well, as for the post office, it won’t be losing our mail on Saturdays.
No matter. Cursive writing is leaving the classroom and those kids in short pants won’t be sending handwritten love letters to their “partners” and “significant androgynous others,” etc., anyway. If they do they’ll have to hire the equivalent of literate medieval monks to do it. Orwell wrote 65 years ago that “Our civilization is decadent and our language — so the argument runs — must inevitably share in the general collapse.” What would he think today? As usual, Rome is the primary example. It progressed from Virgil, Horace, and Cicero to — over 300 years later — a very minor poet named Ausonius (the Richard Blanco of Late Antiquity), illiterate barbarian emperors and, well, darkness. Ask Ed Gibbon.
And, of course, literary culture erodes. Most new works of “literary fiction” aren’t worth reading because they are written by academics for academics. Most contemporary poetry is unfathomable or juvenile in its design. E.L. James’ wildly popular Fifty Shades of Grey series main motif is sadomasochism. And Philip Roth has “retired” after six decades of writing. Imagine that. Maybe our most respected living writer — albeit one pushing 80 — has turned his back on his work. Maybe he has nothing more to say. He once famously said that as a novelist his imagination couldn’t compete with the strange world he encountered on the front page of his daily New York Times, and that was long before the Times became the official newsletter of the Democratic Party. Hemingway blew his brains out. Roth, lacking Papa’s late-stage mental deterioration, is sanely content to watch the New York Mets, read, play with his new iPhone, and entertain friends. Good for him. Legions of readers who enjoyed his work wish him well, and he’ll be reread. But he is among the last of American writers who came of age and began their careers in the mid-20th century, a simpler time full of promise, and rewards for serious work.
H.L. Mencken said: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” The 2012 Election makes the Sage of Baltimore’s quip ring true. All the bizarre political, sociological and economic theories that we have heard from the left for years are now being put into practice (in fact, President Obama showcased it in his Second Inaugural and State of the Union speeches). The result is a germinating dystopia sprouting from an executive branch contemptuous of the legislative and judicial branches of national government. Barack Obama is the embodiment of a country in willful decline in both domestic and foreign affairs, and he seems to relish his role. The president is a political Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisting our slow, national suicide.
Maybe some future Gibbon will contemplate the wreckage.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
About the Author
Bill Croke, formerly of Cody, Wyoming, is a writer in Salmon, Idaho.
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Philo Vaihinger | 2.18.13 @ 6:11AM
Gibbon was a crank and a liar.
Grzmlyk| 2.18.13 @ 3:00PM
What's wrong with this article - and I'm not being flip - is it's wildly optimistic.
There are a thousand examples of our inexorable demise he could have cited.
We're going to make Rome look like a piker in our rush toward dissolution. The depredation of every single American institution, every single cultural landmark, every single aspect of the American character, continues apace. Indeed, at this juncture entropy's progress can be discerned from day to day, and the death spiral accelerates even as the dance of delusion becomes commensurately more frantic and oblivious.
But that's what we want. That's what we voted for. Do the liberals know the endgame of their religion is annihalation? The suicide of the West, brought about not by plauge or conquest, but by the greed and vanity of fools and knaves. Ever was it thus.
Only when there are no tomorrows to come will the left be satisfied, the fulfilment of their fantasies having reached its logical and inevitable conclusion.
And it is not that they will find succor, for there is no succor for the left; it is a cancer that seeks no surcease, but only oblivion.
And so it is not satisfaction that will stop the left. It is that they, too, will be sucked into the black hole they have so painstakingly constructed.
The Avenger| 2.18.13 @ 6:53PM
Liberals think that they are so intelligent( they aren't) that somehow they will escape the devastation that their policies will soon cause. Truth be known if they were as smart as they think they are, they wouldn't be liberals.
BackToBasics| 2.18.13 @ 8:52PM
And yet the RINOs and Republican moderates still want to be loved and accepted by these liberal lemmings and couldn't care less about the conservative base of the Republican party.
Philo Vaihinger | 2.18.13 @ 6:12AM
Want to know why America will be done, soon? China has ten times our population and a very fast growing economy, already larger than ours in absolute terms. And our trade policies helped make it that way.
Gary B| 2.18.13 @ 7:27AM
That's too simplistic. China has many complicated problems of its own.
Joellen| 2.18.13 @ 8:01AM
Why are we doomed?
Saturday we prayed in front of an abortion mill as twenty two women walked in to murder their unborn child. Most of them walked past us indifferent, one difiant.
I left before any came out, however there were still warriors there to offer assistance - and sometimes they are able to save the Mother and her child - I dont know yet what happened this past Saturday.
Do you really thing GOD is not a just GOD?
Is America still blessed by GOD?
We turned our backs on HIM, not HE on us.
Keep praying folks, pray for the soul of this country.
Al Adab| 2.18.13 @ 8:26AM
"Indeed I tremble for my country when I consider that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." T. Jefferson. Our idolotry, our worship of the goddess "Choice" among others has brought us to this pass.
The issue is in His hands, we can only do our duty. We, like Cato, must be prepared to pay the consequence rather than submit to live under tyranny. We are today faced with that long series of usurpations designed to reduce us under despotism which we were warned against. We are faced with that which faced free men throughout history, either submit to force or oppose those who wish to rule rather than govern. Is not our liberty worth more than a bowl of government pottage? It was in April of 1775 when the British set out from Boston to take the arms from the lawful militia that the train of events moved. Is not this our day, is not this our time?
Von Mises Jr| 2.18.13 @ 8:29AM
The cheapening of life starts at the top just as a fish rots from the head. Since 2007, there have been 1,428 drone permits issued to operate inside the United States. By 2015, FAA estimates there could be 10,000 drones circling U. S. Airspace: http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....4671.story
We have horse's posteriors that are demanding positive rights to other people's hard earned money for their Section 8 Housing, Food Stamps, ObamaCare including birth control and abortions, public school from pre-school to college and a living wage for not working while their leaders circle Hellfire missiles overhead. Apparently they do not realize that that government is conducting a "Brave New World" experiment and they may not make the grade.
Joellen| 2.18.13 @ 9:27AM
Von, did you get to read my very late response to your question in Wilson's "obama fiddled"?
I believe it applies to this article, well let's be honest, to every article we read about what's going on.
Anybody here a fan of the "Walking Dead"? I am.
I watch that and actually see the similarities in the fact that it just seems like the communist agenda just keeps coming. No matter how many times we try to kill it - it just keeps advancing.
How can that be - again it goes back to we walked away from GOD - and so something has to fill the void - big, dictorial government.
Notice the difference - GOD offers us free will; government dictates what we can and cannot do!
Let's hear those who defend obama & his ilk explain that away.
Von Mises Jr| 2.18.13 @ 11:03AM
I read your comment and you are correct that we are all sinners. I drink too much beer and as TLP will attest, I have a potty mouth. But I go to Church, donate time and money, as well as go to Confession (not often enough) but contritely beg for forgiveness.
But even Christ said "Peace to men of Good Will." God sent fire and brimstone on the people of Sodom and Gomorrah sparing only a few as Abraham begged for the people whose sin was homosexuality and forced rape that was a sin too great. He also sent ten Plagues on Egypt in the time of Moses for enslaving His people.
So while we are all sinners, sins of homosexuality and slavery were considered too grave and the punishment severe. There are several rumors of our Dear Leader engaging in the former and clear evidence of the latter. And the progressives that follow him deserve no better.
So while I do not stand in judgment of men, He will and I hope to stay out of the way. The sins of NYC are like those of Sodom(y) and Gomorrah (if you ever visited the Village or Bowery) and those of DC look much like the Pharaohs in Egypt.
Big government is worshiping false Idols. It is Marxism or "Dialectical Materialism," the philosophy of stuff.
Joellen| 2.18.13 @ 12:23PM
Von, the sad thing is we cant stay out of the way - evil has infiltrated every aspect of life.
So, either we repent, humble ourselves and return to GOD and his commandments (which HE gave to us out of true love); or as you sombely stated we who do not repent, humble ourselves and return to GOD will suffer the consequences as Sodom & Gomorrah did.
In the end Von, we who are not of this world will be rejoicing in Heaven and this world will be no more.
And those who read our responses either believe or they dont - and I'll still continue to pray for a world conversion - cause we both still know,
THE LORD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS!!!
Sixgun| 2.25.13 @ 8:03PM
Joellen / Von... There is a huge difference between 1775 and today. America had just gone through a huge revival during the early to mid 1700's and it is estimated that roughly 75% of the country converted to Biblical Christianity. In 1775 the country was full of honorable, God-fearing men who honored God's laws. Today, I think we'd be lucky to find 5% to 10% who fit that description. We have a country full of reprobates whose god is their belly, who seek after their own lusts, who worship nature instead of nature's God, who seek to fulfull the lust of their eyes and the lust of their flesh, always seeking but never finding the truth. A country who openly practices infanticide and sodomy callinge evil good and good evil. As you say, the Lord does move in mysterious ways... and He better, because it will take a miracle to save this country today!
CrackerHound| 2.18.13 @ 11:56AM
Joellen...The irony of "The Walking Dead" is that in a world overrun with flesh eating zombies, the thing that is most dangerous is the other living human beings. That is exactly how the it will work once everything collapses for real. Lack of food and shelter will be a secondary concern to trying to keep your family from being murdered by ruthless people.
Joellen| 2.18.13 @ 12:29PM
Yep CrackerHound - spot on.
Al Adab| 2.18.13 @ 1:04PM
"If my people, who are called by my name..."
I trust you do so Joellen, as do I and mine.
markenoff| 2.18.13 @ 3:23PM
Just wait until the EBT cards stop working.
Al Adab| 2.18.13 @ 3:28PM
...or the transaction tax kicks in.
PolishKnight| 2.18.13 @ 4:26PM
But we really didn't try to kill it. While a portion of communist nations were contained (USSR and China), the socialist agendas thrived in the west and the corporate fascist/welfare state advanced in the states itself due to a variety of factors conservatives themselves embraced: equality for women combined with chivalrous entitlements, the marriage penalty, and racist discrimination against white males to buy votes for the socialist/fascist party.
In the meantime, the right (including Reagan) fretted about drug laws, gay marriage and trying to place speed bumps on women procuring abortions. The right fought communism on the homefront about as effectively as the French fought the nazis but at least the French made a real effort while the right just put in speed bumps.
SUBVET| 2.18.13 @ 11:57AM
In the end we all know who is in control.........Daniel 2:21
Sixgun| 2.25.13 @ 7:51PM
AMEN BROTHER! God is not mocked.... whatsoever ye reap, that shall ye sow.
PCC| 2.18.13 @ 9:51AM
If you want to know why China (the Chinese people) are kicking America's ass, it's because they work hard, save money, don't whine and believe that that alone will give their kids a better future.
Sound familiar?
Bob Grant| 2.18.13 @ 10:05AM
In addition, China has ten times our population, a fast growing economy, and little to ZERO natural resources.
Empires need natural resources. Where are they going to get them? And why is their military expanding at a rapid pace?
PCC| 2.18.13 @ 11:31AM
Dear Bob,
With all due respect, denial is not a river in Egypt. Chinese people, other Asians, Eastern Europeans and even Africans today are acting upon what we used to believe was the bedrock of achieving the American dream: work hard, save, forget about the government looking out for you (they've got a lot of experience in that last category). The U.S. actually has a lot to be proud about in giving them the example. Now, it seems, Americans are more concerned about preserving their position rather than competing to maintain it.
Bob K| 2.18.13 @ 7:44PM
There are at least 2 good reasons (as the Chinese would view it) why the Chinese Army is expanding.
The ratio of available women for marriage to Chinese men is still very poor and the Army gives them something to do.
And a large and available army has always been necessary for China to keep order among it large and widespread population.
Stan Redmond| 2.18.13 @ 10:19PM
A couple things. China DOES have many natural resources. And what they don't they purchased the supplies around the world. In fact, to my dismay and destroyed part of my business, they own nearly the entire worlds supply of rare earth metals. A difference that benefits them is they actually use their natural resources.
The Chinese people are a tough bunch to get a feel for. They don't work hard because they want to. They work hard because they are told to. If it wasn't for the ex-pats (Germans, Americans, French) supervising and running their factories they would still be stuck in the 1940s. There is zero creative ability in the vast majority of the people.
What is China's number one resource is people. There is no way USA politicians would EVER let a factory be set up in this country anymore. Having seen the factories in Ghanzou you can not comprehend the logistics required to employee 100,000 people in a single shift. Like I said western ex-pats will be the brains behind the operation. The Chinese supervisors are basically the knee cappers.
JP| 2.18.13 @ 10:46AM
China will get old before it gets rich. By 2050, over 365 million of its subjects will be over 62 years old. Already China is seeing labor shortages in various industries, which are causing all kinds of costs and production problems. I wouldn't bet on China, not by any means.
John Navratil| 2.18.13 @ 8:05PM
JP,
I'm with you there. However, the U.S. population is only increasing through immigration. We are not immune from the turmoil we are seeing elsewhere.
Kitty | 2.18.13 @ 7:04AM
From chapter two of "1984":
"Newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past. He felt as though he were wondering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. What certainty had he that a single human creature now living was on his side? And what way of knowing that the dominion of the Party would not endure for ever? Like an answer, the three slogans on the white face of the Ministry of Truth came back at him:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 10:00AM
Well, Kitty, a large portion of our population already subscribes to the last slogan. Probably won't be much longer before they subscribe to the first two.
Kitty | 2.18.13 @ 10:33AM
The lo-infos. Sad but probably true.
Alan| 2.18.13 @ 2:57PM
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
The ruling class Marxists know all too well how to exploit it for their own ends.
Virtue| 2.18.13 @ 7:12AM
Won't be slow. Hyperinflation followed by collapse of the currency, coming soon. We are doomed.
Kwan| 2.18.13 @ 7:25AM
In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. (1984 G. Orwell)
And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested. (1984 G. Orwell)
In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for ‘Science.’ The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc. (1984 G. Orwell)
Reality is what the party says it is. Sound familiar? Slavery is freedom. Failure is victory. Decline is progress.
Gary B| 2.18.13 @ 7:37AM
Ain't no doubt about it - it's a little tough to be optimistic, but I am. Free-lunch liberalism has to run its course to be fully discredited even to half of the low-information and useful idiot voters out there. Without a doubt, Public Enemy Number One is the press that's cheer leading this decline. If it employed honest inquiry and did its job, Obama would be a pathetic political curiosity instead of a world leader.
JimH| 2.18.13 @ 8:30AM
Current events and mores were more accurately described by Heinlein as the 'Crazy Years' in stories set in his future history than any other fiction I've seen.
Kitty | 2.18.13 @ 9:19AM
"Fahrenheit 451" is another story I associate with this administration. Bradbury's story was published in 1953, although I think more people remember the 1966 movie. Even in 1966, flat screen televisions and reality shows, in which the viewing public can participate from home (think Dancing With The Stars), were considered science fiction. It's the story of how the protagonist, Montag, evolves from tool of the state to human being. It seems as though that process is being reversed.
Who Knows?| 2.18.13 @ 11:39AM
I recently re-saw this movie.
The dumbing down of Americans is equivalent to the burning of books, and the trend is for more and more stupid and misinformed people to take Obama, and raise him.
What if Obama is just the start, and the next president will be to him, as he is to Clinton, as Clinton was to Bush I, as Bush I was to Reagan?
sotto voce| 2.18.13 @ 1:14PM
The wheels are in motion to anoint Hillary in 2016. Polls tell us she's the "most admired woman" in America. This is the stuff of nightmares.
markenoff| 2.18.13 @ 3:24PM
Obama/Biden 2016!
Bandido| 2.19.13 @ 1:39PM
Your theory will be tested very soon by President Hillary Rodham Clinton, the nation's first female leader, as the media will trumpet 24/7 until we are all ready for the lunatic asylum. She will be Eva Peron reincarnated, only more ignorant and unintelligent. Obama will be as Pericles in comparison.
bustunloose| 2.18.13 @ 9:34AM
I think Roth is most praiseworthy. A liberal democrat I think of a certain stripe-hated RMN and all of that, but he saw the decline for sure. I don't blame him for chilling. hope write a bit though. Like to know his final verdict, or rather sense of what the future brings.
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 9:58AM
"Our name is Equality 7-2521."
Kitty | 2.18.13 @ 10:33AM
Ayn Rand's "Anthem"
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 11:15AM
Good for you! And the analogy to this essay is that, in the end, their will be some of us who refuse to succumb. We won't all be part of the Brave New World.
Kitty | 2.18.13 @ 11:32AM
Aldous Huxley. Who's next, Margaret Atwood?
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 1:06PM
She's a bit of stretch, for me. (Don't go there, Tim)I'm thinking maybe Heinlein. Maybe we could teach the pols the definition of "Fair Witness". But then again, maybe not.
Kitty | 2.18.13 @ 1:11PM
I read Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and wished I hadn't. ugh.
Joellen| 2.18.13 @ 1:12PM
KennesawJack, I didnt read Ayn Rand's book yet, but your comment "there will be some of us who refuse to succumb", well are we not repeating history?
There were those who refuse to denounce our True GOD so they were to face a death in a Roman arena; or died on a cross like our savior JESUS CHRIST; Peter himself was placed upside down, because Peter didnt think he was worthy to die as our Savior did (how noble of the Romans to grant Peter that one consideration).
Yes, we might be re-creating the past in our own lifetime - it's already happening in the middle east.
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 1:26PM
Joellen, you can download Anthem from the internet for free from several sites. It is a very short story. If I remember correctly, I read it the first time in less than an hour.
markenoff| 2.18.13 @ 3:25PM
Many of the humans were entertained until the very end. - Anonymous Cylon
Tyson| 2.18.13 @ 10:10AM
Our culture is on the skids; that's for sure. The internet has opened a Pandora's Box of runaway evils that can never be restrained. Our democracy is becoming a pornocracy, a pornocracy in every sense of the word.
Civility is declining at lightning speed. Television is daily promoting vulgar and disrespectful behavior, and few seem alarmed.
What can be done to prevent our civilization from collapsing? Very little, I'm afraid. It's too late--far too late. The lid on Pandora's Box is open and will remain open. Something wicked this way comes.
Gary B| 2.18.13 @ 10:39AM
Something wicked has already arrived and it occupies all of DC, the epicenter of evil.
CrackerHound| 2.18.13 @ 12:10PM
It's absolutely true Tyson. And either we are the people living with a touch of paranoia and social dysfunction, or there are A LOT of people in denial because I find only (generally speaking) one in twenty people agree it is as bad as you describe.
They don't believe the worst can come about when to me, it is obvious we will be there sooner rather than later.
N8tivTxn| 2.18.13 @ 11:00AM
We are mired, knee deep in PC. Even "our side", after railing against political correctness unceasingly, allows itself to be torn apart by simple ethnic, religious, educational/business, regional, and social/societal eccentricities, many of us wearing our PC proudly, like a big chip on our shoulder.
On the www, certain parties feel obligated to discretely "warn" their counterparts of their heritage et.c., lest they risk being inadvertently insulted by their peers. I don't care if you're white, black, Mexican or Native American - Jewish, Catholic, protestant et.al. I don't care what your education level/ profession is, be you the most lowly laborer on the totem, brilliant scientist, or successful venture capitalist - if you don't have the basic philosophy down pat, you are a drag on the mission.
We are Americans first, or we should be. I think our survival depends on it. What happened to the idea that Americans should leave their peculiar differences behind in The Olde Country. In the past Americans made a tremendous effort to meld, to Americanize ourselves. No longer. Now we are encouraged to maintain our non-American heritage, and proudly expect the rest of society to accommodate and defend our "rights".
markenoff| 2.18.13 @ 11:06AM
Our civilization is constantly being invaded by barbarians. We call them children. The most barbaric are adolescent boys (ie; Lord of the Flies). The age old civilizing force in any society has been the patriarchy. Even in societies we would consider "barbaric" (ie; Mongols) the patriarchy imposed the mores of that society (don't rape your sister etc.) on the young males. But we have destroyed the patriarchy in the inner city and have created multiple generations of barbarians who prey on the available females who have no patriarch to protect them (the second primary function of the patriarcy) which leads to them being impregnated and abandoned leading to the creation of more barbarians.
Rome let the barbarians in. We created our own.
Tyson| 2.18.13 @ 11:25AM
Well said, markenoff.
The boys from the "inner city" have also managed to assert a massive corrosive influence on popular culture.
Hip Hop now reigns supreme. In fact, the movie The Great Gatsby has a soundtrack "composed" by rap artistes. The rhythmic soundtrack "propels the action."
I wonder what F. Scott would have to say about the movie version of his great novel.
Oh well . . .
Anthony| 2.18.13 @ 11:29AM
Our friend Grzmlyk would concur with the conclusion of this article.
Oh well, perhaps the meteoroid that struck Russia is just the first sign by God that it's time to put an end to this failed human experiment.
Human kind has many wonderful, magnificant qualities. Despite the flaws of leftism, humanity had some proud moments.
Perhaps when God starts anew he will finally eliminate the "liberal" gene.
If that occurs, the next incarnation of humankind will be more wonderful than one could possibly imagine.
Who Knows?| 2.18.13 @ 11:41AM
It's a good thing there is only God.
R Martin| 2.18.13 @ 12:04PM
As I read the comments above I kept thinking that the conditions over which the writers lament did not develop overnight. Leftists inserted the thin edge of the wedge with some perceived well-meaning program, and now the part that splits the wood is being rammed home.
That is why expanding government must be resisted much more aggressively. There are a lot more wedges out there. Obamacare is a big one; others are VAT, carbon tax, green energy subsidies, unchecked illegal immigration and the general aversion to criticizing bad behavior which has become the PC movement.
Bipartisanship is a curse. Conservatives had better start electing leaders who will take a firm stand for conservative principles, or all those cries of doom above are likely to prove prescient.
markenoff| 2.18.13 @ 3:27PM
Any institution that is not avowedly conservative becomes liberal over time.
J.C.Eaton| 2.18.13 @ 12:08PM
Too many think the Constitution can't be stretched to the ripping point; the same people think this once-great country is endlessly elastic in terms of the abuse and profligacy that libs are prepared to inflict upon it. I'm old and in not very good health, so I won't be the guy that turns out the lights, but methinks that when our Gibbon pens the comprehensive history of our nation, he'll note this was our era of bread and circus. The only thing missing are the lions.
Petronius| 2.18.13 @ 12:12PM
Pannae et circusum until we defeatum
MTB| 2.18.13 @ 12:35PM
The Decline and Fall of the United States of America: Thy Name is the Democrat Party.
cicero| 2.18.13 @ 1:10PM
We appear, if we are likening ourselves to the Roman Republic, to be where Rome was in the first half of the 1st century B.C. Our politions are making the same promises to the hoi poloi to get elected; they are plundering the treasury; and the educated classes are standing by wringing their hands, trying to get theirs before theirs is taken away and given to the hoi poloi. It would be fascinating if it were not so tragic.
This is why the founding fathers did not want a democracy. The ironic thing is that the first to be devastated will be the hoi poloi - who voted the plunders into office.
markenoff| 2.18.13 @ 3:28PM
When the legislature controls the buying and selling the first thing to be bought and sold is the legislators. - Cicero
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 1:52PM
I found this essay difficult to take, to say the least, because I believe, to a large degree it is prescient. This may be too much optimism on my part, but perhaps before we accept the notion that we are completely doomed, consider this. To begin with, I agree. We are, in fact, for all intents and purposes, toast. The Country, as we know it, is irretrievably lost. But, that is not to say ALL is lost. Here’s why. Four-hundred fifty years ago (more or less) the following event took place. Somewhere in England a young Puritan kissed goodbye to his (or her) parents, siblings, etc., knowing he (she) would likely NEVER see them again. Sometime thereafter the same thing occurred throughout Europe. A French Huguenot, a German Lutheran or Anabaptist, a Russian or Polish Jew, a starving Irish peasant, people in virtually every European country cut the ties that bound them to family and homeland and left for the New World. .
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 1:52PM
Think, for a second, what kind of mettle those folks must have had and consider whether you would be able to say a last farewell to your parents or siblings, or in some cases, even your own children. Even in this day of Skype and the internet, could you do it? It takes a very strong, self-confident and courageous spirit to do that. Those folks were, for the most part, our ancestors, and their DNA courses through us. Granted, over the centuries some of that DNA has been lost, diluted, or simply denied existence. That DNA, that generational legacy, is what sets us apart from the Romans, the Greeks, and even the modern Europeans. That which we inherited from our ancestors is the essence of our exceptionalism, the intangible that makes us Americans. Certainly, after years and years of our institutions trying to eliminate that notion from our psyche, with a great deal of success, it is harder and harder to find but, in many of us, it is still there and will be for a long time to come. I’ve said before on TAS and I still believe it, this nation is going to fracture. There will be the old America (us) and the new America, but there WILL be an old America and it will be here long after the new America is gone. So, to borrow from NASCAR (I DO live in Georgia, after all), it's time to cinch 'em up tight and get ready for the ride
Pecos Pete| 2.18.13 @ 6:35PM
Not being a fan of NASCAR, but finding enjoyment from watching a cowboy/girl ride a bucking horse ... yeeHA!
Kingofthenet| 2.18.13 @ 2:29PM
I for one will not go on the beach, until people are dressed properly:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tum.....o1_500.jpg
markenoff| 2.18.13 @ 3:32PM
Or like this
http://www.thedailybeast.com/a.....estan.html
cicero| 2.18.13 @ 3:30PM
King - The problem is that there is no where to .go. Those breave folks you talked about were able to take their modern technologies to a wide open land virtualy devoid of anything but a few million stone aged folks. We are left to what we have now. We will either have to retrieve our situation here, or fall into oblivion
Of course, we can always wait for the cycle to run its coarse. We only have to outlast the dictatorship, monarchy, and aristocracy to pass before we will get another shot at it. However, I don't think I have the energy to wait the 3000 years all of that will take.
markenoff| 2.18.13 @ 3:33PM
The people they were trying to escape also couldn't join them within a day or two via jetairliner.
RCV| 2.18.13 @ 4:06PM
You guys don't get invited to a lot of social gatherings, do you?
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 7:22PM
The only ones I get invited too are Habitat House build-outs, the food ministry at our Church to feed the homeless, and fundraiser meetings for the Group Against Child Sexual Abuse. How about you?
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 7:38PM
"to", not "too".
Purp| 2.18.13 @ 4:15PM
"the Roman government appeared everyday less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects." - maybe if you all stopped making up imaginary conspiracies and stopped whining about every little thing and actually stand on your own 2 feet, the world would not see us as any less.
It's your constant carping about how bad things are (when they aren't), how bad the President is (when he's not) and how bad America is (which is ridiculous) that might be having that effect - ya think?
Obama could solve world hunger on Monday, world peace on Tuesday and establish diplomatic ties with the Andromeda Galaxy by Friday, and you all would still beotch about him not being good enough.
It's clear no matter what he does, you don't have his back. You're not fooling anyone
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 7:24PM
Hey, Purp. We're all about the standing "on your own 2 feet" part. Try telling that to the Obamabots.
Bob Grant| 2.18.13 @ 5:06PM
Purp,
You boy has the Anti-Midas Touch. Yes, by any measure things are much worse under his watch. And it's only the end of the beginning. It will get much worse.
But by all means, continue to sing his praises.
dherion| 2.18.13 @ 5:38PM
Mark Steyn is hard at work as we comment.
Petronius| 2.18.13 @ 7:47PM
The oracle of the uncivilized hath spoken. Where for, bury your books which the Leftist Trash hold in utter contempt, so that when he and his ilk are gone there can be a revival of tradition and Normality which has been under assault for the past century from the new elite who believe that wisdom began and resides only with Them through their drive to destroy decency to the extent they won't tolerate any negative comment of their behavior as rutting animals attempting to recreate orgies in the age of Caligula, and apply the sand box zero/sum economics of the Levelers.
We cannot stop the Purps from attacking us and Our beliefs. But they can't make Us like it!
Government produces Nothing and never will. Those who do produce should have gone out on strike in January 2009. That's the change I'm still hoping to see.
KennesawJack| 2.18.13 @ 8:10PM
I understand there's an updated map to Galt's Gulch coming out soon. Can't be soon enough.
FETOAU| 2.19.13 @ 12:28AM
Please share when you get it.
Thanks in advance.
RJ| 2.18.13 @ 9:43PM
While some good things have happened (civil rights), we have witnessed a decline in the general health of culture over the last few decades. I would like to know the fundamental cause of the decline. I suspect it is two-fold. First, the economy did well enough after WWII so that most of us were able to enjoy a degree of luxury and as a consequence, many Americans became less serious minded. People gave more attention to things and feeling good rather than values and doing good. Second, fewer people probably believe today that there are consequences after death for your behavior in this life. As a result, more people feel less restrained in their behavior.
I would appreciate any thoughts the rest of you may have on this subject.
Tyson| 2.18.13 @ 10:28PM
RJ,
When young males were put in charge of the entertainment industry the cultural decline began. There is a lack of subtlety in the young male imagination.
Sex, Violence, and Vulgarity are what the young male mentality appreciates. The more violent, vulgar, and pornograhic, the better.
How old is the average writer of television comedy scripts? He's in his mid-twenties. This is the average age. Seen any TV comedies lately? Could you stomach them? Why not?
RJ| 2.18.13 @ 11:09PM
Thanks for your comment, Tyson.
You are right, I can't stomach today's TV shows and long-term exposure to it is not healthy. TV is not part of my life any more. It is shocking to see what is on these days. What is worse is that people that I know find them entertaining. We live in different worlds. Did you ever watch "Sky King?" I had the opportunity to see the series again last year. The difference between what is on today is dramatic.
Claudius| 2.18.13 @ 10:26PM
The fish rots from the head.
Marc Jeric| 2.19.13 @ 3:21AM
REQUIEM FOR AMERICA
I listened to the 4th State of the Union speech by President Obama. Instead of any lengthy analysis I conclude, on the basis of my experiences while living in a communist hell of my previous country, and several other more or les socialist countries where I lived and worked, that the true analysis of that speech can be briefly summarized by renaming it as “The State of the United Soviet Socialist States of America”. (cont.)
Marc Jeric| 2.19.13 @ 3:21AM
Among other job programs he announced I could discern only one kind of jobs that will for sure increase substantially – namely: 1) the money printing machines attendants, and 2) the government employees unions. He again stressed his desire to advance the development of green and renewable energies (they do not exist); he also repeated that old hoax of the global warming (forget the new ice age scam; it is now the climate change flim-flam, or is it the cap & trade power grab?). Cap & Trade – another name for the far-left program of nationalizing our energy industries. Well – whatever works; the final aim is the UN-sponsored world socialist government that would impose “social justice” everywhere and thus save the planet! The disarming of Americans will proceed at pace; and the arming of Obama’s local soviets (better known here as community organizations) will ensure “domestic order”. The new minimum wage will be $9/hr, to be bestowed by our dictator’s executive order; if that is good then $20/hr would be even better. Rigorous enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act giving houses to “disadvantaged minorities” who have not a snowball’s chance in hell to ever pay for them will be continued without mercy for those rapacious bankers.
Marc Jeric| 2.19.13 @ 3:25AM
A careful examination of Chuck Hagel and his record in the Senate reveals that he is more than just unfit for the position but is also likely to severely debilitate or compromise United States national security.
As a member of the Senate, Hagel voted in the following manner on Defense issues:
• NAY on separate barracks for males and females in basic training;
• YES to kill an amendment that called for sanctions on commercial fronts of the Communist Chinese military;
• YES in support of China’s membership in the World Trade Organization; and
• YES on the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty to reduce U.S. nuclear stockpiles.
On May 14, 1998, Sen. Hagel voted to table (kill) the Hutchinson Amendment (S.Amdt.2387) to the National Defense Authorization Act of 1999. This amendment would have required the President of the United States to “compile a list of persons who represent the Communist Chinese military companies and who are operative directly or indirectly in the United States or any of its territories and possessions,” and to “publish the list of such persons in the Federal Register.”
Peppermint Tea | 2.19.13 @ 9:15AM
And the anger of the Lord is kindled, and his sword is bathed in heaven, and it shall fall upon the inhabitants of the earth.
And the arm of the Lord shall be revealed; and the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people;
For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant;
They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth fold and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.
Justice4U| 2.19.13 @ 2:30PM
Gracious me...you hit on so very many topics, what nation could recover from your perceived failures of the United States.
Not all people that shoot others are "crazy" and laws to proscribe those perceived to be mentally ill are not constitutional. The most violent offenders should be considered under such prohibitions to guns.
VAWA or the Violence Against Women Act has never been properly upheld in America's courts. In fact, most judges (male, that is) rule in favor of men in these circumstances. I have witnessed an abandonment of the American woman in the courtroom so profoundly that the judges acted in actual civil rights crimes from the bench.
While I agree with other points you make, there are many that are not quite accurately portrayed.
But, this requires research on the topics flung about in an opinion column that likely were not well researched by its author.
Research is critical to asserting a claim. I strongly recommend it. Research strengthens your argument.
Bloopville| 2.22.13 @ 1:58PM
Whenever I see a comparison of the US to ancient Rome, I know I can safely ignore the article. Usually, Gibbons erroneous conclusion are given for the fall of the Roman Empire, citing 1st century AD Roman behavior as the reason for the 5th Century fall of the empire. When Rome was at it's height, it was a nasty, uncultured, pagan, sexually lax cesspit. After the 303 Edict of Milan, it became a conservative, inward seeking, Christian Empire, inflexible in military doctrine and forever enmeshed in static garrison defense. Little can be gained from a comparison of the two cultures.
Longplay| 2.22.13 @ 7:17PM
" The girls prefer flip flops as their toes turn blue while waiting for the school bus. "
And kids would rather get to school soaked to the skin rather than wear the yellow raincoats and rubber boots we use to - sensibly - wear. Even if we didn't want to, we did what our parents told us to do. Wow! Obedience and respect for elders? What a concept!
chuck in st paul| 2.22.13 @ 8:06PM
this whole disaster has been fueled by the infantile culture of the Baby Boomers. "I want it! I want it NOW!!" "Don't judge me!" Etc., etc., etc.
They HAD to deconstruct "America" in order to maintain their juvenile cultural goals. America was based on the rule of law, of personal responsibility, loyalty to the country and the family. We were raised with a work ethic. Now, if it feels good, do it.
Since then we've raised and miseducated two generations of cultural and historical morons and created a Cargo Cult of the minorities who have a "right" to pick my pocket because of something that happened hundreds of years ago and not to them and not by me.
These last two elections were the handwriting on the wall - the critical mass of unAmericans has been reached.