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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2596
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 19, 2006 - 10:37 am: | 
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Historians have often pointed to the point at which a nation,
society, empire, people have begun to decline and also stated that
said decline was not apparent at the time. The Roman Republic began
to decline after the Punic Wars, yet it endured until the Caesars.
The Byzantine Empire began its decline after the Battle of Manzikert
in 1071, yet it endured almost 400 years after that. The Ottoman
Empire began to decline after the Battle of Lepanto in the late
1500's but endured until the early Twentieth Century.
The USA stood unchallenged in 1945--most of the rest of the world
devastated, divided, colonialized--in sole possession of the A Bomb,
with an undamaged, vibrant economy.
Despite a spike again in 1989 at the fall of Communism, I think few
would say that the U.S. is in such a position today.
Put on your Afrofuturologists hats! When did The Decline begin?
A few suggestions:
The Korean Stalemate 1950-53
The McCarthy era of the 50's
The assasination of JFK in 1963
The Assasination of MLK and RFK in 1968
The eclection of Richard M. Nixon in 1968
The Defeat in Vietnam in 1975
The Resignation of Richard M. Nixon in 1975
Jimmy Carter's "Malaise" speech in the late 70's
The Election of Ronald Reagan in 1980
The Iran Contra Affair in the 80's
The rise of Gangsta Rap in the late 80's
The Republican Takeover of Congress in 1994
The Monica Lewinsky Scandal of 97-98
The foundation of the NeoCon movement in the late 90's
The Y2K panic of 1999
The election of GWB in 2000
9/11/2001
The Invasion of Iraq in 2003
The election of GWB in 2004
The Hurrican Katrina Disaster in 2005
Then again maybe you think everything is ginger peachy!
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Va_sis
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Va_sis
Post Number: 116
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 19, 2006 - 12:39 pm: |
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I would venture to say it was a combination of many factors starting at the turn of the century (1900s):
As the Civil War ended, there were many displaced White families that harbored resentment towards Blacks & Northerners. The Industrial Movement in the North is what saved the country economically in that era.
Just as the dust began to clear, we were smack in the middle of the Great Depression, Jim Crow & Segregation.
Civil Rights Movement butted against the Vietnam War.
The Age of Aquarius was the love child of the War & the Movement...young Americans, Black & White, had enough of the government's hypocrisy.
The War mutated our proud Black people. Soldiers came home with their post-war ailments to drug infested neighborhoods, and the government wasn't prepared (or cared) to deal with neither.
Late 70's & 80's, these activists, soldiers, hippies etc. were parenting an entire generation of forgotten children. Combine that with the government's ignorance to GenX's needs, this new generation lead the way to rebellion.
And so on...
...but I said all of that to say: This country never had a chance to heal from one blow, without another occurring- due largely in part to the government's arrogance & pretentiousness.
Wasn't it written that other countries (Russia, Korea) widely criticized the US & its hypocrisy in foreign affairs because the US allowed segregation & lynchings to occur? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 4951
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 19, 2006 - 03:21 pm: |
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It all started back in the 1950s when chrishayden entered the world and fluttered his cruddy eyelashes creating the "butterfly effect" that made it all down hill from there. If this menance hadn't been born this nation would, indeed, be in a ginger peachy state. As it is, America never learned anything by trial and error and so it continues to descend into doom by compounding its mistakes. |
Mony
Regular Poster
Username: Mony
Post Number: 29
Registered: 02-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 19, 2006 - 03:40 pm: |
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The decline of American civilization began at it's very inception. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6139
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 19, 2006 - 06:01 pm: |
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This is an interesting question. If America is in decline, I think I'd argue it began at the fall of the Berlin Wall. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 383
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 19, 2006 - 08:11 pm: |
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I blame Madonna. America lost it's 'innocence' when Madonna took center stage. From the moment we were bombarded by The Material Girl and her sadism and freakiness, our morals have not been the same. And ever since the genie’s been let out of the bottle--followed by the 2LiveCrew, Paris Hilton, Monica Lewinsky and them--I haven't seen how we could possibly get what little innocence we had back. And if you ask me, that's what our problem is - heathenishness (though I do not agree with them conservatives nor am I a theologic dogmatist). Because racism & corruption have always been here. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 384
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 19, 2006 - 08:25 pm: |
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...Sorry Kola!!
I know Madonna is your girl, but I owe you one for MARY J. BLIGE!! (LOL)  |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6145
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2006 - 02:45 am: |
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Tonya,
I think there's a correlation between the fall of the Soviet Union and the ascendency of America's current hedonism that was ushered in by Madonna and buttressed by other popular culture figures you mention. Historically whenever a great empire defeated it's last great enemy it descended into decadence and depravity. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 4953
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2006 - 11:30 am: |
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Madonna was an "idea" whose time had come. The way was paved for her by the hippies who appeared on the scene in the early 1960s. These anti-establishment successors to the the free-wheeling beatnik bohemians were the psychadelic flower children who embraced drugs and advocated that everyone "make love not war." Their guru was Timothy Leary, a Yale philosophy prefessor. Also contributing to this trend was the Kinsey Report, a study done by Indiana University professor Alfred Kinsey which took a survey on the sexual habits of Americans, then published it as a book that exposed all the shocking things that went on behind closed doors. Also, I am inclined to agree with Mony in believing that this country's decline began at its inception. America was on a collision course with failure because its noble ideals looked good on paper but didn't allow for human frailities, especially the one that allowed civilized people to tolerate slavery. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 1204
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2006 - 12:58 pm: |
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I don't like or dislike Madonna. I have absolutely no opinion of her one way or another.
Abm, that could be due to arrogance and feelings of superiority, I'm guessing. |
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