America on the verge of Social Collapse?

I'd shared my ideas about this to a few other people and they seemed to agree (or atleast not think I was totally bonkers) and I want to put this into the public.

I feel that America may be on the verge of a social collapse soon.

I look at the country and I see a mistrust of politicians and the government in general, lowest voter turn outs ever, Highest drug abuse, highest depression (and the onset of depression gets younger and younger every year), most of the world seems to hate America, and there seems to be one military effort after another. Criminal syndicates and Corporations are gaining governmental power. Not to mention that a good amount of the people just don't seem to care about the country anymore.

I think with out a big change in some effect, the idea of keeping us calm with TV and other escapes will only last so long before something happens. If a catalyst comes along like say a new technology, or an influential person, then the tip into full unrest could come quicker, but otherwise it seems we're sliding into this gradually.

One of the points that was brought to me is that technology is advancing too quickly and we're socially not being able to adapt to it as fast as it comes in, you look at the youth who understands this new technology and the old who don't, both feel misunderstood by the other and both tend to move farther away from another into social extremes. Basically we're growing too fast and we need more space. If an Orca out grows it's tank it becomes depressed (shown by that flopped over dorsal fin), and it has to move over to a bigger tank. And maybe that's what we need, is a bigger tank.

How long before the Criminal syndicates and corporations realize they don't need to hide their power under politicians (what do you think all these political contributions are for after all?), and just step up and take power for themselves? Or before the populace decides they're sick of the politicians perpetuating their corruption?

It seems extreme and wild, but think about it, the same kind of collapse happened in the late Roman empire.

But mainly i'm interested in what your thoughts are on this, whether you think there's some truth to it, whether it's all me worrying too much, or whether i'm just a total gassy nutbag.

Social collapse? I think it's inevitable, for many reasons. It won't happen in my lifetime, but it will happen. History would seem to support the theory.

*looks out window in the USA* I see people in new cars buying stuff, laughing, eating, kissing, pushing babies around, the sky is blue, the grass is green, birds flying, cops cruising by, kids in punk gear next to grannies next to bikers etc etc.....

seriously though, most people here are not concerned because day to day living is moderately easy for most people, you work, pay bills and buy stuff. Yes, there are evil plots to squeeze your money and cheat you and the government is full of schemes but...

The corporations and rich people pay millions to the polotitions who make laws in their favor in exchange for the money which helps them get re-elected. Most corporations need bodies with money to buy their products and thus make enough money to give to polotitions etc. If there was an impending 'social collapse' the whole world would be screwed, it wouldn't be just the USA and the world knows it, well the corporations know that if all of a sudden their products were too expensive to the masses because of runaway inflation, terrorism, whatever, the world would be screwed (because so much food, for example, is corporately owned, across the world) so essentially there is a balance that has to be maintained. There is a limit to how hard those who want your money and soul can squeeze before people are so desperate they will risk there own lives to rise up. The USA is in a slow decline of the middle class, but things are so cheap here because little is made here anymore, it's made cheaper overseas,so it lessens the blow of having less money. There are an amazingly exponential increase in wealthy people in the uSA, since bush took over the number of billionaires has increased 3 fold and the middle class has been weakened and the poor still strugle to get by, BUT the poor have access to cheap food. "A hungry man is an angry man" Bob Marley wrote, we are not hungry enough torise up against the corruption...

I see dreary gray skies, while listening to the gentle pattering of an endless rain. An SUV passes by the window, its occupant obliviously chattering on her cell phone while consuming gasoline at a criminal rate. As the vehicle passes, I note the bumper stickers. "God hates fags" and "W2004" are contrasted by the delicious irony of the ichthys. The driver of the vehicle is speeding, perhaps because of an all-too-normal egocentric outlooker or perhaps because she has noted the small group of young teenagers standing nearby, brandishing tattoos of "evil ways" and "hate" with criminal intent, while a distasteful homeless man ekes out a meager existence living upon the streets, his dirty and disheveled clothes soaked through with the chill rain which has been falling for years. Alone and forgotten, the homeless man collects a can which has been carelessly tossed from the window of the SUV by a driver too concerned with herself to care about others. Too conerned to think about the environment, or the effects of her gluttony. As the vehicle speeds away, her cloud of exhaust obscures my view. When the haze dissipates, everyone has disappeared.

yes, the flames of bigotry and hatred have been stirred by religious nuts recently and prisons now 'take care' of the mentally retarded once they get desperate on the streets, but the American people are generally kind and generous but doped up on superficial consumerism, religious dogma, pharmaceuticals, booze, drugs AND/OR anger towards something...

I agree.

I think, however, that you look in history and you find this over and over - talk of social collapse, then revolution. 60s is a prime example.

We are in the dawning of a new astrological age... perhaps a sign of major changes...

America is on the verge of collapse, but there are more pressing problems. Login issues, for example.

I don't think we're on the verge of collapse. I think we're a bit more resilient than that. I do think we're headed towards some very difficult times, though, and that the US position as the sole superpower will end and we will be surpassed by China and the EU. Even India could surpass us in the coming decades. We've become fat, lazy, and complacent. Our populous is frighteningly ignorant of history and higher learning in general. Religious extremists largely control the government. We no longer have much of a free press. The FCC is trying to extend its power to censor to the internet, cable, and even pay channels.

Growing up in this country I could never really understand the seeds of revolution. Our lives here are benign. Now, for the first time in my life, I get it. If these trends don't ebb and if we don't wake up and start taking the government and the media back (we meaning the people, not huge corporations, special interest groups, and would be fascists), then it will eventually reach a crisis point. The state of government and the press in this country truly scares the shit out of me these days.

Of the people, by the people, for the people has become of the special interest groups, by an extremist minority, for the corporations... and our ignorant populace is too busy watching American Idol to care.

At this point, it's evolution or revolution really. I'm still hoping for the former.

That was ironically beautiful.

I don't think that any kind of collapse will happen now, but I think that if things don't change in the next 20-40 years or if there's some sort of catalyst like a person or a new piece of technology that changes our outlook on the world, then things could go bad.

But maybe I am overshooting a decline as a collapse, but even with a decline something has to happen eventually, because eventually it's going to hit rock bottom.

things aren't as bad as 1968. things aren't as bad as 1973 (gas crisis). we've got some terrorism now tho you have to admit they haven't been doing much outside Iraq for a few years but it's not as bad as the 80's when i was growing up and every other week there was a plane hijacked or a night club bombed and everybody knew we were going to have world war 3 and all die in a nuclear fire ball, if we were lucky.

so yeah i don't see things being as bad now as they've been before socially or politically or some other way. life's pretty good now aside from personal problems. i might just feel this way cause my car gets good mileage.

These forums feeling like they are collapsing tonight.

I expect more of a slow decay, like tooth rot. Subtlety is insidious.

So, Ardith, what did *you* do for the homeless man in the rain besides stare at him from the comfort of your heated home?

What are *you* doing to make your city, your state, your country a better place?

Can you name a country that is better off?

Or are you content to just whine?

-Kiamat Dusk

I murder protest warriors in their sleep.




HAHA. Just kidding.

Your statement about the decline of the free press is instantly negated by CBS' memogate, and the mere existance of the NY Times, LA Times, and Washington Post.

Being an unabashed Christian doesn't make Bush a "religious extremist". For an example of religious extremists, look at the Taliban and the Mullahs in Iran.

It's this kind of talk that makes those of us on the right look at you on the Left and say you hate America. All you do is whine and complain. I never hear you espouse the beauty of this country. I never hear you stand up and say "America is the greatest country on this planet". Rather, when one of us says it, you refer to us as "flag waving jingoists".

You chicken littles only THINK the sky is falling because you are experiencing the moderate and conservative backlash from 40+ years of rampant Liberalism.

-Kiamat Dusk

Kiamat, you are a religious extremist, or have you already forgotten your thread from yesterday spouting the Family Research Council/James Dobson bullshit about "activist judges" or your hysteria from three months ago about sex education? You're exactly the type of extremist I'm talking about.

I just got done with a final paper on the Taliban for my Central Asian history class. Mullah Omar at first appeared to be a benevolent Robin Hood figure, who was bringing the Pashtun people back into the notoriety they felt they deserved. When he and the other nascent Talib seized Spin Baldak, the southern Afghani people truly thought that he was doing the nation a great deal of good. In the end, he parlayed that victory into a platform of oppression and religious intolerance.

George W Bush at first appeared to be a benevolent Robin Hood figure, who was bringing the Conservative Americans back into the notoriety they felt they deserved, etc.

Though Bush's oppressive governance pales in comparison to the absolutely despicable Taliban rule, that does not make it any less oppressive.

Wow. So *that's* the terms the tolerant lovers of dissent and free speech are calling any opinion that doesn't conform to their own. Way to keep that mind wide open, Chip.

-Kiamat Dusk

....s/he said in an open internet forum without being arrested on the spot....


Ummm...grammatically speaking-yes it does. But that's beside the point.

-Kiamat Dusk

Oppression is not a relative concept. There can be one source of great oppression and a dozen sources of lesser oppression. That does not mean that those dozen oppressors aren't actually oppressing anyone. But hey, you're a conservative so why am I even arguing this? If Clinton somehow came back to office next week, you'd accuse him of being a sadistic oppressor to rival the Taliban.

Edit: Removed some insults. My apologies, Kiamat.

Social collapse? Hmmmm....

Slavery
The Genocide of the Native American Peoples
The Civil War
The Great Depression
Two World Wars
Korea
The 60's / Vietnam
The Cold War

The Year 2000

The Deaths of Kurt Cobain and Jerry Garcia

We seem to have survived them all and grew stronger as a result.

But, if in fact we are so dangerously close to the fall of the American Empire, what the heck are we doing sitting on our collective asses for so many hours a day playing Second Life while we could be out there volunteering to do something positive for our country and fellow Americans? Inquiring minds want to know.

Forget the whole Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, Robert Kennedy, and Ghandi assasinations. Clearly two rock stars dying are worth mentioning and world leaders are not.

(Okay, I'm just being a smartass, your points are well taken. We will get through it, but my original point was that there are times of revolution that these things we've survived have spurned. Those revolutions were necessary to our survival.)

That was one of my points actually, is that America is lost in a virtual escape whether it be drugs, booze, or even just a game like this. Where people would rather play this game all day then do something for the country.

Just because we survived a lot of these crisis' doesnt mean we're getting stronger and stronger it also might mean we're getting weaker and weaker, There are plenty of countries who handled a lot more or less then fell.

The real interesting thing to see is going to be when the "old generation" goes out of the picture and the new generation starts taking important offices. And by that I mean the people born and raised in the time of the computer and this age of advances and information.

The skyyyyyyyy is falllllllling...look out! Well, anything's possible I suppose.

Are things really so bad now? We've seen worse times, economically and politically, think back a few decades.

I'm sure people were saying the same types of things after the American revolution, around the Civil War, and during a good part of the last century.

Not that there isn't dangers and challenges ahead, but I think you underestimate American resourcefulness, productivity, and will to succeed. You can either choose to see the losers and human scum, or the caring and decent people here--we have plenty of both. Probably more of the latter than the former, but the news and entertainment industries love to push "bad news", because it sells, so it seems the other way around. And of course the pessimists, anti-Americans, and others who feel so compelled to, will always see the bad and be blind to the good. (Do you personally know more generally "good" people or more generally "bad" people?) (Btw if it's the latter, get new friends.)

If ever some kind of "good vs. evil" fight starts up I can promise you that GOOD vastly outnumbers evil...don't you think?

Countries like China and India are upcoming somewhat, (if they don't die in the pollution first), but they have their own major problems. (Where would you rather live, anyway?)