What are the symptoms of a decline?
You’ve probably heard the phrase a lot lately: The Decline of America
But what does it mean? What do people mean when they say the ‘Decline of America’ and more
importantly, why?
We have the last 8000 years of history to provide us with a few case studies. There is one
glaring element that stares me straight in the face, that I can not shake from my mind that truly
makes me think we’re staring a fall of a nation straight in the face.
Is it when your country begins to lose its global power status? Maybe, but not just that.
Is it when your country enacts a few faulty political policies that lead to hiking inflation or an
overwhelmed customs and border control? Maybe, but not just that.
So what is it?
It’s when a country can no longer unite against a common evil or towards a common good.
When a nation can suddenly be split into two trains of thought and that nation not only
disregards the need for social coherence but promotes the repression of a train of thought that
doesn’t perfectly align with their own.
I have family that has lived through the Lebanese Civil War in the 1980s. Can you guess how
the conflict began? You guessed it: Muslims on one side, Christians on the other.
The ideologies may change, but human behavior always stays the same. If a group is more
focused on fighting the ideologies of its own people than those enemies outside its country, then
you have your symptom of a declining country.
Scene from Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith used as an analogy for the Left and the Right.
Guess which one is which: