by Mark Schwendau
One of the most publically discussed topics on the Internet these days is whether America is on her last legs. It comes from many directions of people with different backgrounds. Three major ones are religious, financial, and historic. These people post lists of signs of an empire’s coming demise based on past experiences and observations. As to whether they turn out to be right or not, only time will tell.
People from religious backgrounds discuss signs in the Bible. Long story short on this one is when society falls into such moral decline chaos and anarchy are the order of the day, Christ comes back to scoop up the good and leave the bad on earth to perish with it.
People of the financial persuasion look at numbers, math, and graphs to spot trends from the past to see if they can determine precursors of what is to come. Market meltdowns and crashes are terms you often hear related to these folks looking for the end of an empire. You will also hear of prices of precious metals, energy, and food skyrocketing in the market.
People of history will live by the old adage that those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. They, too, look at math to help make their objective case for an empire in decline, pointing out that the age of an empire is about 250 years in duration. They will also use more subjective observations, such as stating things like, “Every major civilization throughout history that came to accept sexual deviancy as normal perished soon thereafter.”
First, an empire in decline will have people fixated on some form of ideology or a mix of ideologies. This could be religion, economics, societal (centralized or decentralized), sexual deviancy, race relations, and of course, politics. One recent example of this was when Covid-19 vaccinated people were turned against the unvaccinated and vice versa. The vaccinated were afraid of the unvaccinated becoming super spreaders, and the unvaccinated were worried about the vaccinated shedding their spike proteins on others.
Second is the obsession with self-gratification and/or entitlement. During this phase, society becomes more interested in being “happy” rather than what is really going on around them. A good example of this today is “Forgive college loan debt!”, while not asking or worrying about “Who is going to pay for it and is this fair to others who have gone before?”
Third is unchecked government corruption. This can come in many forms, from democracies, republics, parliaments, authoritarian, totalitarian, monarchies, oligarchies, technocracy, theocracy, dictatorship, socialist, communist, colonialist, and aristocratic taking over a government. It doesn’t matter what form of government either. A good example of this one today is the “two-tier justice system” which is really a “politically biased justice system”.
Fourth is degrading public health. This can come in the form of plagues, diseases, substance abuse, and societal poisoning overwhelming our health system. Recent examples of this that come to mind are both the Covid-19 pandemic that began as research at North Carolina State University as well as the fentanyl epidemic entering our southern open border now. A recent news story showed all kinds of counterfeit look-alike pills, from Tylenol to Viagra, laced with fentanyl.
Fifth, are food shortages and nutritional challenges. These can be caused for a number of reasons both man-made and natural disasters. Good examples of threats to our food supply come from the mysterious food processing facilities catching fire and/or blowing up the last two years to the animal rights and climate change activists posing a threat to our food supply. The resultant challenges are made worse by the globalists who seemingly want to destroy the food chain intentionally under the guise of climate change.
Sixth is when an empire becomes over-extended financially. Massive amounts of wealth from taxpayers and increasing government debt limits going towards both government entitlement programs and the industrial war complex are real threats. Takers outnumber makers or the money spent outpaces the gross national product (GNP) coming in. A good example of this is the money going to Ukraine without accountability or the idea of giving government handouts to illegal aliens.
Seventh is the constant feeling of perpetual external warfare against the “nation-state.” When an empire is constantly at war it cannot use its time, talent, and resources to move forward, this eventually leads to the decline of an empire. A good example of this is the increase of homelessness in America while giving billions to Afghanistan and Ukraine in recent years.
Empires experiencing a few of these phases are not under threat, but when they all come into alignment the result is inevitable.
Copyright © 2023 by Mark S. Schwendau
Mark S. Schwendau is a retired technology professor who has always had a sideline in news-editorial writing where his byline has been, “Bringing little known news to people who simply want to know the truth.” Heis a Christian conservative who God cast to be a realist. His website is www.IDrawIWrite.Tech.