Okay, here's the thing.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

This is what almost no one understands, and it's that our country passed its peak sometime back. Probably about the time Ronald Reagan was first elected, but I'll leave it up to historians a hundred years from now to pinpoint it more exactly.

Countries and civilizations rise, then fall. This country has had a decent run. But it's essentially over. Except that hardly anyone, least of all those in power, have any clue that it's over.

We are on the long, sad, and terrible downslide of our civilization. What's happening is well disguised by our continued military presence and power around the world. But that presence is only possible by diverting money from things like social programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid), infrastructure (crumbling roads and bridges anyone?), and the general welfare (food stamps, health care for all, good education). For two generations we've been told that there's just not enough money for any of those, without any genuine discussion about where our tax money really goes. Black budget? I haven't a clue how much unaccounted-for money goes into things we are not ever supposed to know about. Why? Why isn't every penny our government spends completely accounted for? Security reasons? Oh, please. Spare me.

So we are now essentially Romans of, I don't know, 300AD? I'll admit I'm not that familiar with the fall of the Roman empire, but I do know that it was well over a hundred years from the peak of the Empire to the actual fall of Rome.

And so it is with us. This country peaked sometime before 1976, our Bicentennial, and we're clinging to our past glory rather desperately. So much of our wealth has gone into wars, most of which benefit us not at all. It's sad. It's depressing. It's why things are so bad domestically.

It is possible that Donald Trump will pull us back from various foreign entanglements, and improve things at home. However, I think he'll do the pulling back from foreign entanglements, but will then enrich the already wealthy.

We are already on the long slide to historic irrelevance.

[madokie]

1. Not sure about the time line

but I don't see us lasting that much longer if we as a country don't change our ways.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Right.

The time line is certainly open to lots of discussion, but I still believe we have been on the downslope for several decades.

[madokie]

4. To me what is the saddest part

is all the technological advances we've made will all be for naught. Lost to the ravages of time.
Earth has had a few civilizations that we know enough about to realize that we really don't know very much, the Egyptians, the Mayans and on and on

[TreasonousBastard]

3. You're right that future historians will have fun arguing over the time line, but...

the parallels with the fall of the Romans are clear.

The British empire, too.

[MadDAsHell]

5. "Crumbling roads and bridges" needed fixing way before it became a buzzword 10 years ago.

That's one of our primary problems. No one has any political will anymore unless there's a cute catchphrase, hashtag, or social media campaign to go along with it.

[MFM008]

6. I feel

Nothing maggot does will turn out well.
Nothing.