From time to time throughout History, Nations have risen from rags to riches. The Romans, the Greeks, the Russians, the Chinese have all had their time in the Sun; China may well be coming back for a second helping. Some Nations have risen to great heights and actually “disappeared” from the face of the Earth. The larger European Nations enjoyed their Colonialism for many Centuries, and finally had to shrink their global influence.
At any rate, there does seem to be a pattern of sorts going on here.
As much as it is painful to consider, the United States of America seems to be headed down the backside of the mountain. Consider the events of the last forty, or so, years. The resolution of the Viet Nam War seemed to open up a new Era of enlightenment aimed at peace and prosperity. Unfortunately, “We The People” forgot to take down the Military-Industrial Complex. We actually allowed it to feast on the public “dime” until that dime grew to a few thousand “dimes”. Remember the gas lines of the Seventies? Remember the Carter Years? Uncle Ronnie gave us a recession. Slick Willy sent all our Manufacturing to the far corners of the Earth. Bush & Son, Inc. gave us total chaos in the Middle East, and Sonny Bush gave us an economic Depression that everyone wants to call a Recession. And now, the racist backlash of electing a Black Man to the White House is quickly driving us back into a Depression, just when we were beginning to tread water, again.
I suppose all good things come to an end, and the last half a century may represent the death knell of our “Great Society”.
Sooner than any of us would like to think, there will be only two Classes in our Society; a small number of wealth holders and a mass of peasants. Our Educational System used to be highly regarded. Now, it is totally dismembered and useless. We used to “make” things in this Country. Now we have no capacity to manufacture anything but Military hardware and a few automobiles. Our vast waving fields of grain have been shrunk and neglected for so long they can no longer feed us. Elected Officials used to be admired for the work they did. Now you can’t find a positive word about the entire lot of them.
Most, if not all, of these aspects of our life could be turned around. What makes me believe that won’t happen is the new attempt to mold our way of governance into a Church State. Have we all forgotten the Dark Ages, the Crusades, the Inquisitions? I am getting a bad feeling that we have, and History is about to repeat itself. I truly thought that our Generation was going to be beyond this folly, and lead us to some semblance of peace and understanding. The rose colored glasses have come off, and I have to ask, “Where did we go wrong? What did we do to bring this upon ourselves?” I have some preliminary thoughts on the subject, but I am going to disregard the 24 hour news cycle, put down the print media, and try to come up with some sort of rational, logical conclusion. Until I do, I’m simply holding on for dear life; it’s going to be very bumpy ride.
