When Nations Die

[Guest guest]

There is a book called When Nations Die by Jim Black. Black studied past cultures and found common signs amongst them in their periods of decline. I will list them just from the table of contents with my comments in ().

Social Decay

1. The Crisis of Lawlessness (Rising crime, illegal immigration, corporate corruption, etc.)

2. Loss of Economic Discipline (Spending on the Welfare State has been rocketing up even under the Republicans, consumers don't control their spending or save, too much importing of goods)

3. Rising Bureaucracy (Government has been expanding wildly for the last 40 years)

Cultural Decay

5 The Decline of Education (Public education has been a joke since the 1970's and has been getting worse)

6. Weakening of Cultural Foundations (Today children get little education about American history and what they are taught seems more aimed to make them hate the US that care for it)

7. Loss of Respect for Tradition (People are turning on the Church and religion in favor of the new "if it feels good, do it" faith)

8. Increase in Materialism (Need I say anything at all?)

Moral Decay

9. The Rise in Immorality (Again, it is the "if it feels good, do it" cult in action)

10. Decay of Religious Belief (Morals and clean living are so yesterday. Who needs to be righteous when you've got Valtrex? Oh, and of course, you can't profess any religion, except Secularism)

11. Devaluing of Human Life (There is one very big thing we all know which is forbidden to be talked about here, the welfare state reducing babies to a bigger welfare check, the welfare state replacing families, and "entertainment" the glorifies crime and senseless killing while also portraying women as living sex toys)

Conclusion

12, The Enduring Challenge (I've never made it this far in the book, it was just too depressing to see all of these things in play in the US and Europe)

All of these problems could be addressed, some more easily that others. It will be tough medicine given how many people are dedicated hedonists who misunderstand what Freedom really is. There would be many people and groups who would simply have to be told to shut up or put down in order to effect the changes necessary.

Now, I'm not talking about a Stalinist Purge. If we cleaned house of government bureaucrats, career politicians and disbarred or otherwise handled the glut of lawyers (well ok, we can have a Stalinist Purge of lawyers) and silenced the self-serving pressure groups on both the left and right, real reforms could be put through. Government and legal reforms would be easy. Getting people to put on their pants and behave will be much harder.

I'm also not advocating a Nanny State that dictates what people can and can't do to a tremendous degree. If someone wants to smoke, fine, but restaurants and businesses can forbid it if they choose. If the person smokes, they can also accept responsibility for the ill health that will come of it too. People can be promiscuous too, but if they get something like HIV/AIDS, then they have to go to a sanitarium and out of society if they want their medicines. No sense helping them look healthy and keep spreading the disease. It happens: the little town I go to in Alabama had an HIV+ man come up from the city and infect 8 women with it. AIDS is no different than Typhoid Fever and there was no hesitation to lock those people away.

People can also advocate a welfare state. Each simple tax form will have two rates on it: the base rate and the socialist rate. If someone supports a welfare state, let them put their money where their mouth is and pay the higher rate. I'll bet money not many would.

If one state wants gay marriage, fine, pass it into law, but other states have every right to pass laws against recognizing such marriages within their borders.

Such a policy might not be such a bad idea. Let different states handle these matters as they choose. If some states required HIV/AIDS patients to go to sanitariums and others didn't, you'd see a population shift. same for gay marriage and tax rates. It would be laboratory to see what works and what doesn't. The only problem is that it might take years or decades for clear results and humans are so impatient. Still, letting certain states enact certain laws on themselves would be preferable to the Federal Government forcing such laws on everyone.