The decline will happen... it is inevitable. All empires fall. Name one, historically, that hasn't.

The only question that remains, is when. Is it now? Probably not. Is this the beginning? We will only know once the fall has happened.

It is too early to speculate.

The US Empire has over stretched itself by far. It will never be able to control more of the world and have more bases than it does now.

Socialism will rule the world by 2059 Dec and everyone will hold hands in a chain of peace across the world (except for the Oceans and militant areas of US where right wing survivalists will be dressed up in military gear, killing deer, waving KKK flags and wanking over pictures of children)
Ok and hardline Islamic paradises such as Iran, Afganistan and Pakistan will hold out until they have populations of 53,000, 112,000 and 3,400 respectively, the rest of their populations will have been welcomed into their neighbouring socialist paradises

The rest of the world drops naked pictures of women and men on the Islamic statelets until they commit suicide with the shame of having seen a person they are not legally married to without their clothes

The Zionists of Israel will be Socialist but obviously not with their 'dirty' Arab so called brothers. They are only allowed to live in Israel if they convert to Judaism in which case they can live in a razor wire holiday camp surrounded by tanks and gunships with snipers shooting their children while in their classrooms as they do now. :eek:

Everyone else will smile with joy at a world of people living in safety and supplied with food and medical care free of charge.

FFS we get a socialist world after I'm dead!!!! It's so unfair, no one ever wants me to be happy :rolleyes:

What I find most sickening is that Americans, including most here, are rejoicing in this rather than trying to figure out what is going on and how we can fix our problems. We are lamenting over the supremacy of our own country and its government which is made up entirely of its own people. I find it absolutely disgusting. I am all for peace and getting along with everybody, but since somebody has to be at the top, what is so wrong with that being us, especially since we have the ability to govern for the common good. You whine about the rising costs of living, but when the shit hits the fan the costs skyrocket while the standards decline. Criticizing leaders is one thing (which is strongly encouraged), while reveling in the loss of our people's status-- and more importantly, our lives-- is utterly disgusting. I am absolutely furious right now.

While I can appreciate your outrage... this seems just a little arrogant, "especially since we have the ability to govern for the common good."

It assumes, among other things:

a) that other nations need to be governed by some higher authority
b) that "common good" is a universal concept

It's not my intention to jump all over you, I just wish to point out that it is this brand of thinking that annoys the rest of the world.

I wouldn't get too mad, its not as if America is run by TFP posters, and we may all be thankfull for that :D

I think we are seeing the decline of superpowers in general. We are a long way from all countries and peoples being equal, but it seems the trend is toward that direction.

I welcome it. While I feel that the US will always be a "more than equal" participant in world affairs. I think that our arrogance and colonialism need to be toned down significantly.

We do have the ability to govern for the common good. The US has arguably the most advanced democracy in the world. Sure, we have people who "make" the decisions, but who ultimately calls the shots? The people. If we don't like the decisions that the higher-ups are making, we can take them out of that position. We just don't use our ability enough. I didn't mean to sound arrogant, it was more to say that I would rather have us at the top than, say a communist country. I'll put some more up here, but I gotta habla Espanol.

Either that, or very smart but simultaneously deluded/brainwashed... or just plain apathetic. I think there are plenty of intelligent people in this country, but most refuse to be interested in not only the affairs of the rest of the world, but in the very real problems of the poor in our own country. People won't see what they don't want to see. In my opinion, this is the cause of the decline of America, in effect for at least the last 10 years.

next year is my 20 year HS reunion... it's been apathetic since at least that time...

Does anyone ever think they live in ascending times, when everything is roses and only good will come of it?

I'm sure if you searched the archives of the US for the last 200 years you would find plenty of references to the 'decline/decay' of America.

Likewise predicting a fall is like predicting that water is wet. Everything WILL come to an end, the question is when, and if you are off a few 100 or so years, who's counting right?

The American mind set loves the concept of the underdog, and everyone always wants the weakling to somehow win. Hell the US was the underdog for a good portion of its history. But as stated earlier in the thread, SOMEONE is going to be top dog, and it might as well be us. If the little dogs will yapp at our heels until we fall, so be it. Name me a superpower of the past that was in any way loved by other nations? France? Spain? Britain? Rome? NO one likes the top dog, ever.

tspikes51, can I ask you to clarify the two following points?

1) What makes a democracy more advanced than others
2) Why the US is arguably the most advanced democracy

Thanks

No problem. The idea that America is one of the most (if not the most) advanced democracy in the world was actually presented to me by my American Government professor, who, in fact, is of Arab origin (origin, not descent). One thing that makes a democracy advanced is obvious: time and experience. America, as we know from history, is one of (if not the) oldest democracies in the world. Therefore, we have had had more time to develop than other democratic governments. The point that my professor made was that America is at such a state (because of the amount of time that it has existed) that overthrow of the system would be almost impossible because no single party could impose something that would cause a majority to want to change its form. The majority would just remove that party from office.

I know that many people would like to think that this is false (which is what angers me), but it's the truth. Our government has many faults, but it's not that bad.

I can't think of a major empire (if you really want to call America that) that fell in less than 500 years (give or take 100). So, if you do the math, that leaves us at least another 250 years. "Empires" don't just fall off the map, it's people let it happen.

Maybe if we would pull our heads out of our asses, stop hoping for our demise, and get to fixing things we could hold out for another millenium. It's time America stopped bitching about the way things are and get shit done.

One could argue that one of the oldest representative democracies in the world today is the United States government. But that isn't the case if we speak about a particpatory democracy. Time and experience doesn't make something more advanced, in my opinion. But if it does, the oldest particpatory democracy is older than the US version by far. By your professor's own logic, that version would be the most advanced of the two. Like many of the other contributions we've made to this nation, perhaps our contribution to the framers' implementation of people governing themselves is unknown by your professor. Asking him what role Native Americans played in the development of democracy in the United States could bring a very interesting and enlightening discussion into your classroom.

the hurricane doesnt have anything to do with the decline of the US...

its an overspending government, lazy poor people, over-regulation of industry, unions, and stupid people that are the undoing of this nation.

my dad said that the US was on the decline as a superpower the day they closed down the super conducting super collider project in texas

The US and the rest of the world will probably share the same decline.. the decline of nationality. As the world population grows and communication as we know it evolves nations will eventually become obsolete. We're slowly moving out of that juvenile phase where we risk extinction of the species by our own hands (most of us, anyway) and begin to merge together in the giant melting pot that is no longer just the US, but the entire planet. Sure, we still run that risk of total obliteration, but if we go long enough w/o killing ourselves eventually those invisible lines that divide people will disappear. We're facing the final test as a species right now, hopefully we'll surive. It won't be much longer, and though i wouldn't expect all this to happen with the current generation in charge (sorry guys), we'll probably surive.. ...probably.

the decline of nationality? I'd laugh if you weren't so wrong.
I am an internationalist and would love to see negative nationalism of the rich die but I don't see any evidence of that

You are optimistic but not realistic. What you say I would enjoy seeing but where's the evidence the US is staring to merge into the 'giant melting pot of the world?'

1) WTF is an 'Internationalist'?
2) WTF is 'negative nationalism'?
3) Nationalism is for rich people?

:hmm:

next time around im running for president, if i lose i am abandoning ship.......