As you all know great empires rise - decline - and get destroyed like the Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire.... Where do you think is US on this graph today? :bugeye:
the rise and fall of civs is not a neccessity. it is merely humans making shitty judgements and having an inability to learn from past mistakes. civs do not have to die out. foresight and planning are the keywords here. lets not jump the gun here
I would say US is just before the middle point of the graph. There is corruption in The US Government but not so much that it takes precedence over the nations safety. Hollywood is too powerful of a assest to make US weak right now. The nation is generally together - no civil unrest yet....the south seems to be in good cohoots with the north. So all in all US is pretty good on the existence scale for now. The other countries don't pose a threat yet because they can't seem to get their shit together in order to get the US.....and as for the world posing a threat well it's the same reason as why no country can pose a threat right now.
85 percent. Our leaders in government, business, academia and religion are corrupt, intimidated, or inept. All of our institutions are crumbling. The populace as a whole has bottomed out on intelligence, education, reason, and caring. Our entire economy is built upon a computer infrastructure that is built to the quality standards of a Third World dictatorship, using software "engineering" techniques that a Roman aqueduct builder would laugh at. Individuals, organizations, and the nation are making decisions so short-sighted that children can spot the errors in them. We are using the good fortune of being handed the title of World's Only Superpower to browbeat friends and enemies alike, rather than investing our unique power to reap a better future for everyone. If things continue this way, I'd say that in one more generation the U.S. will be so precariously balanced that: A worldwide freak of nature like a mini ice age or a few years of low rainfall, or An alliance among some of the peoples who have come to despise us, or A complete failure of the information infrastructure a la "Dark Angel" is all it will take to make "Dark Angel" a reality. Never forget Argentina. A mere hundred years ago it was one of the world's ten most prosperous countries. What can save us? You kids! You're smarter, better educated, more iconoclastic and more caring than your parents. You understand computers better than most of us. Force software makers to adopt quality standards. Vote for third party candidates; that really scares the hell out of the Republocrats and has been known to wake them up in the past. Rein in the military. Research alternative energy sources. Most of all, behave like a society that cares about itself and its members, instead of a pack of selfish hyenas like your parents. It's up to you. I know you didn't ask for it. But that's the way it is.
Though civilizations fall all the time the most successful ones are copied by later peoples time and time again. Governmental systems, cultural traits, art, militaries. One could argue rome is alive and well for instance... just in a more diluted form. I am certain thousands of years from now there will be multitudes of things in future civilizations that hark back to america. I am sure we will be copied just like rome was.
A true story of something we inherited from Rome The fuel tanks on the Space Shuttle were limited to a certain diameter because the only way to ship them out of the factory that built them was by railroad, through a tunnel. The tunnels had a maximum diameter because the rolling stock had a maximum width dictated by the "gauge," or distance between the rails. American railroads copied the gauge of the first English railroads because English engineers came over here with their dies and tools to build our railroads. English rails are a certain distance apart because the people who built the cars that rode on them were wagonwrights who already had their tools and dies from centuries of wagonmaking. The distance between the wheels on English wagons had been a standard for as long as anyone could remember because the ruts on English dirt roads, made from wagon wheels running over them for centuries, were all the same distance apart, and you couldn't build a wagon that didn't ride in the ruts because the wheels would rattle and break before you went two miles. The ruts in the English roads were made by Roman war chariots 1700 - 2000 years ago. The wheels on Roman war chariots were all the same distance apart because Rome was a consummate bureaucracy and they had standards for everything. The reason for the particular standard distance between the wheels was that the carts were built to be pulled by two horses in tandem, and for stability they couldn't be much wider than the two horses' asses. So one of the most important dimensions of the Space Shuttle, the most advanced form of transportation ever devised by the human race, is based on the width of two Roman horses' asses. from James Burke: Connections.
Interesting ideas... Spookz i just said empire to US cause i wanted to compare her with Roamans or Ottomans.
An empire i figure is a country extending through several geographical regions that has a hereditary leadership. Not the dictionary definition but thats how I figure it.
I wouldn't consider the US an empire, although it certainly has that influence to it. Empires as they are defined really can't exist in the current diplomatic situation in the world. Expansionism has basically come to an end, at least for now. I don't believe any country can be powerful forever. While I don't expect the U.S. to be a third-world country at any point, I certainly don't believe that it will be the strongest nation forever. Look at it like a sports team. Regular fluctuations from great to good to bad to good to great are expected and natural. Just take it in stride.
US can nuke the hell out of the graph and make it go wherever it wants it to go. US make and control the graph, the graph does not control the US. Just watch the stockmarket and you'll see that it's all made up cooked up accounting.
I agree with Heflores, in that manifest or any other brand of destiny is not operative here. However, I am alarmed that current policy is isolating the US and undermining our internationally-interdependent economy. Misreaction to terrorism, and incitement of instability is stigmatizing and damaging America profoundly. In much the same way as the world at large will no longer permit overt colonialism, the United States can not pursue policies that so closely parallel colonialism, or a Warsaw Pact, as to conflict with all rhetoric and political base. The US can ill afford perpetual hot war, in terms of blood and treasure. In the economically necessary lulls between wars, demands for accountability will dog any administration pursuing continued interventionist foreign policy in a world that is increasingly resistant to American presence. More significantly, the changing internal personality of America, including a noticeable increase in general distrust, divisiveness, xenophobia, and litigiousness, are beginning to noticeably erode productivity and quality of life. If these negative trends are not arrested and even reversed, the lookback to the times we are now experiencing will describe a downward curve of American fortune and influence. And of course if the US clumsily ignites a regional or world war, all bets are off.
I HATE CHENEY, for being a theif and corrupt businessman I HATE CHENEY, for being a theif and corrupt businessman I HATE CHENEY, for being a theif and corrupt businessman I HATE CHENEY, for being a theif and corrupt businessman I HATE CHENEY, for being a theif and corrupt businessman I HATE CHENEY, for being a theif and corrupt businessman I HATE CHENEY, for being a theif and corrupt businessman I HATE BUSH, for being played like a puppet I HATE BUSH, for being played like a puppet I HATE BUSH, for being played like a puppet I HATE BUSH, for being played like a puppet I HATE BUSH, for being played like a puppet I HATE BUSH, for being played like a puppet I HATE BUSH, for being played like a puppet I HATE POWELL, for not having the courage to resign I HATE POWELL, for not having the courage to resign I HATE POWELL, for not having the courage to resign I HATE POWELL, for not having the courage to resign I HATE POWELL, for not having the courage to resign I HATE POWELL, for not having the courage to resign I HATE POWELL, for not having the courage to resign I HATE POWELL, for not having the courage to resign I HATE RUMSFELD, because he is a red neck. I HATE RUMSFELD, because he is a red neck. I HATE RUMSFELD, because he is a red neck. I HATE RUMSFELD, because he is a red neck. I HATE RUMSFELD, because he is a red neck. I HATE RUMSFELD, because he is a red neck. I HATE CONDELICA RICE, for accepting a position that she's not qualified for, just like her boss Bush.
Heflores Heflores if you will continue to think like that you will find US at the bottom of the grapf faster than you think. Thats what i think about your post. :bugeye:
No the faster we can get rid of those guys I mention above, the faster we will climb up that graph that we draw ourselves. Excuse me, but it's just too damn hard for me to wake up everyday to watch the ugly faces of our current idiotic leadership Plus: if I can't vent on sciforum and let some steam out, where can I....?.
We should have made a pact with russia and shipped the bastards to siberia, not balmy cuba. Terrorists can go there on vacation but I cant! They better be naked in the leech pit right now.....
