America is it in a decline? A new Rome?

Our values are bereft and empty. Torture is O.K as long as they are the enemy yet we are a moral nation. Torturing 12 year olds is wrong, period. Sorry just stating a fact.

u aint as cool as you were a few years back to the rest of us.

but, i still have hope for you. just need to spank your monkey leader and a few of those red states.

liked most of the americans i've ever met. loved one too as it goes.

[Edited on Mar 22, 2005 by hoisin]

I don't think of it so much like a 'decline' as a 'recline'. As in, 'Ahhhhhhhh'

Deja vu. 15 years ago, in high school, the exchange students said the same thing. "You're not the great country you used to be" "Japan and Germany are beating you". Could always count on negative news stories about how the economy was sooooooooo horrible and America couldn't compete. The American dream was now out of reach for most Americans and our best days were behind us in an age of uncertainty. We won the Cold War but lost the peace. These stories pretty much write themselves, journalists don't have to do much hard thinking when they spin these pessimistic tales of woe. And yes, I remember history teachers making facile comparisons of the US to the Roman Empire.

Nothing ever changes. Same doom n' gloomers saying the same things about America. All it does is reassure me they're wrong



[Edited on Mar 22, 2005 by stockula]

not in my lifetime it's not.

pax americana???

though to be fair, Blair has been standing behind Bush like the annoying kid who hides behind the school bully. so yeah, my pot is certainly tarnished.

dp



[Edited on Mar 22, 2005 by hoisin]

Lord, this thread has no where to go but down.

except the falklands was just (if war ever can be)

write a journal already you noob!





...i do think there are currently plenty of similarities between rome in it's prime and the u.s.

i think we need more gladiator battles.

How long was Rome an empire, and how long have we been the dominant force in the world again?

I'd have liked this thread a lot more if it had some real numbers in it.

No offense, but the people like stockula who refuse to see that there is a problem with America are a great reason why there is such a problem with America.

isnt that a compliment?

Certainly there are similarities between Rome and the US. At the moment the US is probably not in decline (but no one really knows, I guess. Those are the kinds of things only really known when they happen) Undubitably, it will happen though. I wonder how history will look back at us?

Do you give lessons in self-loathing?

For a price, sure.

Do you give lessons in infalibility?

[Edited on Mar 22, 2005 by crispy]

oh, believe me: there's what i would say is a majority of people in this country who want to spank the monkey leader. i'd love to impeach him. it'd be a pleasure to see him walk the perp walk for war crimes and stealing elections.

i have a problem with talking about "red state blue state" because no state is pure RED or pure BLUE. they're always a shade of purple.

i think if we focused on the individual instead of the state (ie, every individual has a vote, and a voice) we'd be much better off. this red state blue state stuff is just another way for bush to divide us.

Or you could just bypass an individual's rights and force an edict that a brain-damaged woman who many state and federal courts have adjuticated should be allowed to die with what little remains of her dignity to remain drawing breath by presidential order.

Ah, freedom.

I'm really shallow so I could give a shit.

Oh, you'll give a shit when the French overrun Wrigley!