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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (353761)	10/7/2007 1:13:18 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1573954

I don't think there is all that much decay in society as a whole. There is a lot of decay in those who style themselves as the ruling class. But that is because they have gotten to the point of power being an end to itself. Most Americans saw this a long time ago. Which is why voter participation has declined so much. Sadly, that wasn't the best choice. Because it ceded power to the margins. When I was learning about other civilizations, it was their eventual decline that most fascinated me. The symptoms given for their decline varied from loss of freedoms to widespread corruption to wanton fornication [if it were a religious book]. But what struck me most was the fact that most people didn't know their civilization was in decline until it was too late to reverse it. As a result, I have been particularly vigilant in watching for signs in this civilization of a decline and maybe that has made me hypersensitive. Having said that, I see considerable evidence of decay/decline in this society: from our fascination with Paris Hilton to our growing obesity as a nation to the living beyond our means to the growing antipathy for the collective good. Even the comment you make above........that Americans chose to stop participating because they were turned off by the ruling class. I don't believe a strong society would have made that choice. When you begin to accept that that's the way things are, that's when you are ceding your power in a democracy. Which is why I see the slide to fascism to be inevitable. RAH called it right. Not in detail, but in general. Nehemiah Scudder, or his analog, will rule. For a while. Yes, it does seem inevitable.