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If adultery was a reason to ignore someone, you may be upset to learn about Trump, Musk, Bezos, Kennedy (both the president and the new guy)…
Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
21–30 of 171 posts
Re: Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
#22[flagged]
Ad hominem.
Re: Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
#23Don’t forget to read the comments of the article.
Re: Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
#24wow
"when the United States is a service and information economy; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues"
Re: Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
#25[flagged]
Jelly
Re: Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the people are capable, given the right environment. I think what destroys it is not letting people in Congress write laws in relative secrecy. When the most powerful, including the political parties, can monitor how every Congress person votes in committee, they can micro-manage and micro-terrorize them into doing what they want. Let them deliberate without us watching over their shoulders (because it's most…
Bernie said it best. Get money out of politics. Full stop.
Honestly, I don’t see how that is compatible with a capitalist society. Money is power and politics is the exercise of power.
Re: Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
#27Broken Clock is right twice a day. A civilization declines? If I didn't read history, I'd be shocked. Isnt America still number 1 in GDP and the only regional hedgemon? "I predict that America will decline." Someone write an article, I will be correct at some point. And on the comments about superstition... religion is at an all-time low... So, I suppose that isnt perfectly correct.
Yes. History is filled with empires that have fallen.
Still some value in trying to figure out 'why'. Treat History as a science and ask what are the overall patterns, is there something we can distill out to help guide the future.
US is at the top right 'now'. Wouldn't it be great to prevent the decline that history would say is on the way.
Read some Peter Turchin, he has some good analysis. Patterns in past cycles of growing, then falling, empires.
Re: Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
#28Broken Clock is right twice a day. A civilization declines? If I didn't read history, I'd be shocked. Isnt America still number 1 in GDP and the only regional hedgemon? "I predict that America will decline." Someone write an article, I will be correct at some point. And on the comments about superstition... religion is at an all-time low... So, I suppose that isnt perfectly correct.
> Isnt America still number 1 in GDP
GDP is a completely outdated metric that didn't say anything about civilization decline when it was valid and still doesn't say anything about civilization decline now that's it's next to useless
Re: Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bernie said it best. Get money out of politics. Full stop.
Honestly, I don’t see how that is compatible with a capitalist society. Money is power and politics is the exercise of power.
Considering how NEW citizens United United is...and how every other democracy seems to be able to handle this somewhat sanely... Why is it so hard to imagine? It wasn't like this even in 1995...
Re: Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America (1995)
#30Americans may not think of themselves as an “empire,” but much of the world does. The average age of empires, according to a specialist on the subject, the late Sir John Bagot Glubb, is 250 years. After that, empires always die, often slowly but overwhelmingly from overreaching in the search for power.
the US is 249 years old.