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This wealth is based on social cohesion, which can fall apart in a generation or two. Genghis conquered half of Asia and built an empire of great wealth and hig

This wealth is based on social cohesion, which can fall apart in a generation or two. Genghis conquered half of Asia and built an empire of great wealth and high culture, but lack of cohesion tore it apart not long after.

drzaiusapelord 11y ago
>Genghis conquered half of Asia Are we really comparing this to a country that's nearly 240 years old and is a global superpower that has weathered everything from civil war, a major depression, defeating communism, a moon landing, inventing the internet and all the technologies you're using right now, the largest economy by GDP, the most powerful military in history, etc? This is like saying the The Who or The Stones should have broken up by 1970 because the Dave Clark Five did. I think youre purposely selling short the USA and citing election hysteria that happens every four years is far from convincing. If anything this kind of discourse is healthy and good in a democracy.
- zepto 11y ago
  Yes - why not? Are you saying that civil war and defeating communism means that the US is immune to internal problems? There are many previous examples of societies that survived a civil war and defeated similar sized opponents, but later collapsed. Why not this one?
- astazangasta 11y ago
  What's a better comparison? Tsarist Russia? The Ottoman Empire? Rome? What goes up must come down. Sometimes it is fast, sometimes slow.
- vezzy-fnord 11y ago
  I'm not sure about defeating communism. I'd say communism was destined to defeat itself from its inception, and it did.
- vixen99 11y ago
  - and heavily in debt to the rest of the world.
cmdkeen 11y ago
I think there is a better (though still rather disanalogous) comparison between the US with the decline of the Roman Republic into the Principate. Some of the same arguments apply to the EU. In both cases a large (and roughly similar) number of people with different cultural splits (Red & Blue/North & South European) are increasingly feeling like their governmental structures are failing to represent them. Perhaps X00 million people is simply too many for our existing legislative structures to accommodate at this point in history.
- jdmichal 11y ago
  > Perhaps X00 million people is simply too many for our existing legislative structures to accommodate at this point in history. It's interesting. The US, and I assume the EU, has a mechanism for solving this. Simply devolve authority from the federal level to the state level. The states can, theoretically, better tailor solutions to their individual populace than the federal level can to the entire country. However, things only seem to ever go the other direction. Maybe I just don't see the things that are devolved? Or does it genuinely just not really happen? I suppose one could make an argument that marijuana legalization is an example of states taking back power from the federal government. They pass the laws regardless of the fact that it is still federally illegal and nothing is technically stopping the DEA from busting every single seller in, say, Denver for distribution.

drzaiusapelord 11y ago

>Genghis conquered half of Asia Are we really comparing this to a country that's nearly 240 years old and is a global superpower that has weathered everything from civil war, a major depression, defeating communism, a moon landing, inventing the internet and all the technologies you're using right now, the largest economy by GDP, the most powerful military in history, etc? This is like saying the The Who or The Stones should have broken up by 1970 because the Dave Clark Five did. I think youre purposely selling short the USA and citing election hysteria that happens every four years is far from convincing. If anything this kind of discourse is healthy and good in a democracy.

zepto 11y ago
Yes - why not? Are you saying that civil war and defeating communism means that the US is immune to internal problems? There are many previous examples of societies that survived a civil war and defeated similar sized opponents, but later collapsed. Why not this one?
astazangasta 11y ago
What's a better comparison? Tsarist Russia? The Ottoman Empire? Rome? What goes up must come down. Sometimes it is fast, sometimes slow.
vezzy-fnord 11y ago
I'm not sure about defeating communism. I'd say communism was destined to defeat itself from its inception, and it did.
vixen99 11y ago
- and heavily in debt to the rest of the world.

cmdkeen 11y ago

I think there is a better (though still rather disanalogous) comparison between the US with the decline of the Roman Republic into the Principate. Some of the same arguments apply to the EU. In both cases a large (and roughly similar) number of people with different cultural splits (Red & Blue/North & South European) are increasingly feeling like their governmental structures are failing to represent them. Perhaps X00 million people is simply too many for our existing legislative structures to accommodate at this point in history.

jdmichal 11y ago
> Perhaps X00 million people is simply too many for our existing legislative structures to accommodate at this point in history. It's interesting. The US, and I assume the EU, has a mechanism for solving this. Simply devolve authority from the federal level to the state level. The states can, theoretically, better tailor solutions to their individual populace than the federal level can to the entire country. However, things only seem to ever go the other direction. Maybe I just don't see the things that are devolved? Or does it genuinely just not really happen? I suppose one could make an argument that marijuana legalization is an example of states taking back power from the federal government. They pass the laws regardless of the fact that it is still federally illegal and nothing is technically stopping the DEA from busting every single seller in, say, Denver for distribution.