Wednesday, May 6, 2015

How Civilizations Collapse -- Is the U.S. Next?

This is an editorial by Victor Davis Hanson at Investors. com

Acting counter to a lesser rule about bothering with pieces with titles that end with a question mark it is hard to resist Victor Hanson. I usually learn something interesting from him about history that isn't Egyptian.

Victor Hanson is historian and writes a lot about social issues. Comparing and contrasting as historians do and as the writer is professor we anticipate his piece to read logically arranged and somewhat academically. let's see what he says about the U.S. being next. I say, "no, some other nation is next, but let's hear your points anyway." 

1 Civilizations decline because

1.1) too much consumption not enough production
1.2) debased currency
1.3) corruption

Mr. Hanson avers the U.S. is steeped in these three terminal conditions and adds two more.

1.4) unwillingness to pay taxes
1.5) end of the rule of law

2 About those not paying taxes,  Mr. Hanson describes how it is that people slide by corruption, complacency, and by ideologic sympathisers providing the cover. 

2.1  Sharpton
2.2 Clinton Foundation
2.3 MSNBC 
  2.3.1 Toure Neblett
  2.3.2 Melissa Harris-Perry
2.4 Lois Lerner
2.5 George Soros

3 Laws are politicized as the tax system is.

3.1 Obama -- immigration law ceased to exist
3.2 Affordable Care Act implementation
3.3 EPA bypasses Congress by fiat
3.4 Obama -- Iran agreement bypassing Congress by E.O.

4 Prosecutors have never been more ideologically-driven than they are now.

4.1 Bob Menendez (D) disagrees with Cuba and Iran receives federal indictments from 2006-2013
4.2 Marilyn Mosby Baltimore State Attorney appeased crowd charging 6 policemen for short term gain by distorting law

Conclusion: Increasingly the degree to which a law is enforced or whether a person is indicted depends on political considerations. When citizens do not pay taxes, or choose not to and expect to get by then society unwinds. When law becomes negotiable then civilization collapses.

Victor Hanson does not disappoint. He is interesting and he does read academically, and logically and clearly, he is historian. Looking back over it the whole thing is review. That's why it is so agreeable all the way through. We lived it and discussed it at length. It's interesting to see it summed up like this and briefly set against ancient culture and it is a good read but honestly I must say there is nothing here that is new. 

8 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Agreed. Our best days are in the rear view mirror.

Fuck you Hillary.

edutcher said...

He's talking about a nation, not a civilization - although Western Civilization is in trouble, too.

Looks like secession and nullification may get a curtain call, after all, since the producers and law-abiders want to get away from the slugs.

edutcher said...

AprilApple said...

Agreed. Our best days are in the rear view mirror.

Not necessarily. The situation today is similar to San Francisco in the 1850s and the Vigilantes - what few respectable people there were - rose up to bring order, but even more similar to the Gilded Age and that required a much more sweeping reform, but it happened.

One way or t'other, I think we're about to see a replay of The Grasshopper And The Ant.

Either Flyover Country eventually goes its own way or there's going to be a rerun of what happened 150 years ago.

Mumpsimus said...

Well, I dunno. Rome did pretty well for itself for several centuries after the fall of the Republic. And the Empire suffered big time from all of those "terminal conditions" (except maybe #1).

Of course, the Romans were not shy about using their superpower status against their neighbors, for their own benefit. In fact, they were positively enthusiastic about it.

What finally did them in was mass migrations caused by the end of the Roman Warm Period, abetted by the destruction of their middle class.

edutcher said...

That's not gonna make people feel too comfortable.

Methadras said...

Who needs a civilization to collapse when it's leader(s) actively seek said collapse. I mean, this isn't rocket science. You can see it right before your very eyes.

rcommal said...

I recognized every single reference without having to search the 'net.

Also, I'm proud to say that I read VDH from before "everyone" did.

Bought his books, too, and they even made the cut to be moved East.

rcommal said...

As did, for example, Paul Johnson's, among others'.