Quote:
Originally posted by yellowgowild
I don't know what else to do in this country to fix whats wrong. I notice the parallels to the fall of ancient Rome all the time and it's depressing as hell. But my question is, can a country be as powerful as we are and still maintain it's good morals? Or does the quest for power invariably lead to hipocrisy and moral decay?
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(I added the italics.)
This assumes that the U.S. ever was a moral country in the first place. We have always had certain ideals, but I certainly wouldn't say we're a moral country. Look at Manifest Destiny, slavery, our treatment of Native Americans, our isolationism during the early years of WWII, the complete fuck-ups in South and Central America in the last 30 years, the School of the Americas, etc. I think the main difference recently is that a country as unopposedly powerful as we are now no longer feels much compunction about flaunting our power, since we have nobody to really smack us for it any more. This adminstration is just more blatant about it than past administrations.