The Great Stagger

Guest Post by The Zman

One of the curious things about the Roman Empire is how it managed to stagger on for so long after the second century. The third century is actually called The Crisis of the Third Century, because the empire was in chaos. Yet, the empire managed to get through that period and carry on for roughly two more centuries. In time, Historians will probably puzzle over the same question regarding America. How is that it staggers on despite the obvious problems?

A popular theme in science fiction is one where the human explorers stumble upon alien technology and they are baffled as to what it does. It’s not that they know the purpose but cannot figure out how to make it work. It’s that they don’t understand the purpose of the technology. The implication is that the aliens were so advanced that they were creating tools to solve problems humans have yet to contemplate. The gap between the aliens and humans is so great that it cannot be bridged.

It is a useful thing to keep in mind when thinking about the modern world. The evidence is pretty good that Western man is dumber than his ancestors. We have more overall knowledge than our ancestors, but our ability to add to it is in sharp decline along with our ability to use it. The people in charge now struggle to do the basics of government, like maintain order and the infrastructure. In America, streets are crumbling and there are regular power failures in parts of the country.

A good small-scale example is the city of Baltimore. All of the machinery that was put in place back when it was an important city is still in place. The people running that machinery today are not doing so well. They clearly lack the intellectual firepower to operate that machinery. Baltimore is one of the most dangerous cities in the world and it is suffering from a steady population decline. The political class is so incompetent they can’t even run the graft system properly.

This was all true before the Covid panic. One thing that kept Baltimore afloat was the tourist and sports industry. In the summer, tourists would come to the well-guarded inner harbor. People from the surrounding areas would come in for sports games and the surrounding restaurants. All of that was shuttered by the panic, which means the tens of millions in tax dollars never arrived. Then there is the cost of the Covid panic itself, which has further crippled the city administration.

When you look at many American cities like Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Newark and so on, the question is not “How did they get to this point?” The question is, “How have they not collapsed by now?” Part of it, of course, is the surrounding infrastructure that keeps them propped up. In the case of Baltimore, the rest of the state is taxed to keep Baltimore City government going. Federal dollars pour in to keep the cops on the streets and the schools open for business.

That’s fine for cities, but that cannot work for the country as a whole. Like those cities, the national government is increasing incompetent. Both official political parties are in such steep decline that the next election will offer a choice between a carny barker and a dementia patient. The sober minded will always feels as if the current age sits on the shoulder’s of giants, but the gap between the best we have today and just a few generations ago is breathtaking.

The only thing the political elite is good at doing is keeping the public at one another’s throat over trivia. This is why Trump in President. His main skill as a politician is to stir the pot and cause outrage. He’s a terribly inflamed hemorrhoid on the political ass of the establishment. The upcoming circus over the Supreme Court nominee promises six weeks of television mayhem. The shouting and shrieking, of course, will be from the political class itself, not an outraged public.

One can dismiss that as “bread and circuses” but that does not explain how the country staggers on despite it all. For six months the government at all levels has been sabotaging the economy and civic life with the Covid panic. Tens of millions have been thrown out of work. No one knows how many businesses have closed for good due to the Covid lock downs. Food lines are popping up in the suburbs. How is it that none of this has resulted in civil unrest or at least a few protests?

Of course, no one can really know what is happening. The media told us over 50 million people were thrown out of work due to the panic. The empty streets seem to confirm it, but they also tell us unemployment is below 10%. The stock market has returned to the levels it was at before the panic. The media also tells us that the riots we saw over the summer were a figment of our imagination. How can anything work when no one can be sure of anything being told to them by the rulers?

Like Rome for close to three centuries, America staggers on, despite the problems and the decline of the ruling class. In the case of Rome, there was no organized force capable of toppling her. In the case of America, the global order assumes America will be the pivot point, the fulcrum on which order balances. As long as people are being fed and have shelter, they will not rise up to challenge the rulers. Like Rome, the great stagger will continue until the corpse of the empire collapses.

The thing to keep in mind, though, is that when Rome was finally sacked by the Visogoths, the rest of the known world was stunned. St. Jerome wrote in grief, “If Rome can perish, what can be safe?” In other words, for a very long time people knew the empire was a shell of its former glory and Rome itself was no longer what it was. People just got used to the permanent state of decline. It was their normal. Most likely, American decline will become the new normal too.

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piearesquared
piearesquared

“the next election will offer a choice between a carny barker and a dementia patient.”

That’s a pretty accurate description.

Lebowski
Lebowski

Barker please

Brian Reilly
Brian Reilly

The decline has been going on for 50 years, or more. What I wonder is where the US is on the decline scale. Is it early in a still-comfortable slide, in the middle of a getting-more squalid-by the year drop, or very near the time when the real stripping and scrapping of the corpse is unmistakeable? I am sorry to say I think it is the last stage, and it might get suddenly (over a couple years is sudden) worse as the globalists encourage the hyenas to go at it.

Lebowski
Lebowski

It sure has been going on for awhile I’d say 1971 was the very start and 2001 the acceleration Now it’s just in ridiculous speed

William Williams
William Williams

LBJ’s “guns and butter” policy was the beginning of the current phase.
Smarmy smiles and Nanny-State programs at home; aggression abroad.
There is no need to choose or prioritize;
ALL federal programs and policies can be funded…
for a while.

Common Cents
Common Cents

I used to say the turning point was the Kennedy assassination, but now I think it was actually the election of Kennedy in 1960. The Dems blatantly stole the election with cheating in Chicago and Texas, and got away with it.

During the brief Kennedy administration the nefarious LBJ became VP, the Berlin Wall was built, Cuba was lost, the “civil rights” bullshit started, the beginnings of the Vietnam fiasco started and Kennedy corruptly appointed his brother as AG. Worst of all, the media began the hero worship of the “glamorous” Kennedy and by extension all Dems.

To illustrate how bad it was, look at the calm and prosperity of 1959 compared to the chaos and total mayhem we faced in 1968, after just 8 years of Kennedy/LBJ. The popular culture went from clean cut teens having dance contests on American Bandstand to filthy, drug addled “hippies” wallowing in the mud at Woodstock. I don’t know if we have ever had a sustained 8 year societal decline like that in our history. The Civil War was only 4 years, as was WW2. The depth of the Depression was really 1929 to 1932. The sixties were worse when you consider all aspects of society.

We have never recovered.

Yes, we had brief respites during the Reagan years and honestly, the Clinton years, but the decline has been more or less continuous since 1960 and, of course, has accelerated rapidly since 2000. Unfortunately, the future ain’t looking bright.

Persnickety
Persnickety

The overall American empire is definitely in late-collapse stage. The coasts are in mid-collapse stage. A lot of the middle isn’t anywhere near collapse, other than by association.

Don’t be surprised if the empire collapses in the span of a week or two, the west coast and greater NYC follow with rapid collapses within a few months, and then the area between the Appalachians and Sierra Nevada tries to reset as a new and smaller USA, without all the crap that had been dragging it down.

THEN the real wars start…

William Williams
William Williams

Metro Seattle and Portland may go under quite quickly, but the bulk of WA and OR are relatively healthy; on the ground, the population looks a lot like Iowa’s, and region’s agricultural land has abundant water.

Coalclinker
Coalclinker

Who knows how long we have to go before it all comes apart, but I well suspect the roast will be burnt and charred beyond all recognition by 2030. Now, once the final collapse occurs to the point no one alive can deny it, may only take a few months. The Soviet Union began their final descent on August 19, 1991, and the Hammer and Sickle Flag that flew over the Kremlin came down for the last time on December 25, 1991.

Lebowski
Lebowski

Ignore the unemployment statistics brought to you by the gubmint It’s really much higher and has been for decades

Daniel

First it happens slowly and then all at once. Babylon will be destroyed in one hour

TomMacGyver
TomMacGyver

“How can anything work when no one can be sure of anything being told to them by the rulers?”

I’ve been saying this for years; “The people of America have been lied to by so many for so long, they wouldn’t believe the truth if it hit ’em between the eyes!”

Folks, believe what’s right in front of you, and go from there. If what you’re being told doesn’t jive with what you’re seeing, it’s probably a lie…

Coalclinker
Coalclinker

It’s gotten to the point that when I see anything on TV broadcast by the MSM, I assume that something close to the opposite of what they’re saying is the real truth.

William Williams
William Williams

If CNN reports that the sky is blue, you’d better go outside and check it yourself.

yahsure
yahsure

Our country is a giant Ponzi scheme. Just look at home loans, thirty-year loans? and how much housing prices have gone up while wages haven’t done jack. Our national debt? I look at it and think”we are fuked”
It’s all debt-based.

Atlas Puked
Atlas Puked

One informal metric of our disintegration that I like to use is the overwhelming number of pointless, often witless, corporate tag lines that pollute the social atmosphere. Meant to distill the business’s ethos, they have degenerated into at best pointless fluffery and at worst, idiocy.
I recently was writing a denial of debt letter to a collection agency for a bogus HOA charge from AT&T. The collection agency, Credence Resource Management, has this jaw-dropping corporate tag:
EXCELLENCE BEYOND BELIEF.
This is not a one-off. There are many other instances if one looks for them. The top-most reaches of our corporations are saddled with communications majors who think this is a good tag. If you can get shit like this past a fourth-tier supervisor and all the way up to the CEO and approved, you can imagine the level of incompetence that has to be factored into their admin.
This is America at the turning point. We are either going to reclaim those “corny” 50s values or we are going to sink into slavery of the mind, body and soul.
Get big or stay at home.

Johnny Hooker
Johnny Hooker

Civilizations are living things made up of living creatures. Birth, aging and eventual death are inevitable but not sad or tragic. As this ‘American’ civilization dies a new country is being born. Let’s bury the dead and get busy with the hard work of raising a new and better country.

Undeniable
Undeniable

Trust me Johnny. You’re not going to like what rises from the ashes.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

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