if you dont have time to think, then what do you do??

 

In my opinion, I dont think the US will fall any time in the near future, our lifetimes at least, because I dont see an equal to the US. But whoever conquers US (aka king of the world), will have a grip on world domination.

If anything, China is the only country today powerful enough to stand a chance against the United States. China is the sole country with the potential to really upset the US's grip on world domination. Sure you may say it's a third world nation, but I wouldnt underestimate its technology. Manpower is a given.

US gots mo' guns. But when it comes to wars between humans, it fundamentally all comes down to humans. Manpower. What man is powerful enough today is so unreasonable as to fire the a nuclear weapon against another country. It is world suicide, not domination.

US gots better technology. China isnt too far behind. Although China has an impoverished economy, its military is strong. Engineering is China's forte. Smart people are needed for technology. It is said a great genius is one in a million; China has 1.2 billion people last time i checked.

What 'bout them Middle Eastern terrorists with them planes a crashin into our buildins'?" Not meaning to be disrespectful, but those are casualties are small in the picture of empires rising and falling. Saddam and Taliban are little fish that Prez Bush is overexaggerating to the American public (his budget cuts on education for overkill on defense are making us stupider, causing a cycle or gun-totin' ignorance). And all this biological weapons scare is American media being paranoid again.

EDIT: Why wont China give world domination a shot? Because theyre not American, they dont have that Nazi mentality of command and conquer whites, blacks, Jews, etc. For centuries, they have generally maintained their borders, neither expanding nor losing. They are focused on the greatness of their existing country.

Again, my arguments are for the sake of debate. All do respect to the victims of 9-11.

 

not to pick on you, but its going to seem like I am. Just using your perspective to prove my points...

they won't nessisarly have to "conquer" us. I don't think we'll ever be beat in the conventional sense.

but given the fact that america was pretty much shut down for a few days just because of 4 air planes, I can't imagine it being too difficult to shut us down in other ways.

see, the thing about terrorism is it works on a whole different level. Their basic goal is to cause so much damage in other ways that we won't be able to recoupe. If something were to happen like DC getting wiped of the map from a nuke, or NYC, or some other major city, who knows what the fallout would be. I think at that point, people would flee the cities. Almost all of them.

And from there, who knows how the economy would hold up after something like that. Maybe thats what 2012 is all about, change instead of an ending point. I love everything this country can do for us, but do we really need it all? In short, no we don't, its just self-glorification.

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If anything, China is the only country today powerful enough to stand a chance against the United States. China is the sole country with the potential to really upset the US's grip on world domination. Sure you may say it's a third world nation, but I wouldnt underestimate its technology. Manpower is a given.

don't underestamate N Korea.

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US gots mo' guns. But when it comes to wars between humans, it fundamentally all comes down to humans. Manpower. What man is powerful enough today is so unreasonable as to fire the a nuclear weapon against another country. It is world suicide, not domination.

US gots better technology. China isnt too far behind. Although China has an impoverished economy, its military is strong. Engineering is China's forte. Smart people are needed for technology. It is said a great genius is one in a million; China has 1.2 billion people last time i checked.

when you have a bunch of guys strapping bombs on them and causing a rucus, weapons won't do shit for you. Remember, this isn't conventional warfare.

and technology doesn't mean shit. Were's Osama and Saddam? oh yeah....

What 'bout them Middle Eastern terrorists with them planes a crashin into our buildins'?" Not meaning to be disrespectful, but those are casualties are small in the picture of empires rising and falling. Saddam and Taliban are little fish that Prez Bush is overexaggerating to the American public (his budget cuts on education for overkill on defense are making us stupider, causing a cycle or gun-totin' ignorance). And all this biological weapons scare is American media being paranoid again. [/B][/QUOTE]

you must have missed this:

Originally posted by Morpheus
The Middle East can be seen as perhaps the "barbaric" Northern Europeans that helped cause Rome to fall. Reasons to believe a similar fall will come to us.


Its always the things we least expect that take us down. The thorn in our sides.

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EDIT: Why wont China give world domination a shot? Because theyre not American, they dont have that Nazi mentality of command and conquer whites, blacks, Jews, etc. For centuries, they have generally maintained their borders, neither expanding nor losing. They are focused on the greatness of their existing country.

I don't even know what to say to this.....

 

I used to think the same exact thing in Art History classes. It's an old saying.. but true to it's form.. History repeats itself. It seems the greatest civilizations must eventually come to an end. Egypt, Rome, Greece.. etc.. etc. It was because they get too full of ego.. think of themselves as the police of the world... and shun their allies. Sound familiar? Just my $.02

Janna

 

The simple fact that the US is the worlds largest consumer of goods and accounts for 1/3 of the worlds GDP pretty much assures the US will never "fall"!!! There is not a nation in the world that could afford to loose its largest consumer!!!

Not to mention civilized countries would not allow the US to be taken over by a bunch of heathen, savages like the terrorists jumping up in down yelling "Jihad"!!!

 

Thats a pretty bold comment.

it only took 4 planes to make the US economy come to a temporary halt. God knows what would happen if something of a slightly larger magnitude were to take place.

lets say NYC, or DC, or LA, or some city of that status, were to be wiped out in an act of terrorism. Do you really think the economy would hold after that?

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Not to mention civilized countries would not allow the US to be taken over by a bunch of heathen, savages like the terrorists jumping up in down yelling "Jihad"!!!

I doubt the US will be ever be "taken over"

people keep thinking convensionally.

like I said in the earlier post, people would flee the big cities, and life would pretty much 'start over' in some fasion. Change is inevitable, so never say it will never happen.

 

The economy was already in the tank on 9/11...that's pretty much common knowledge.

And if you think terrorists would be able to wipe out a couple of our larger cities they would need the support and infrastructure only a country can provide...didn't we just eliminate one such country? Nope we did two!!!

I agree change will happen...just not in the drastic measures you think in.

 

history lesson:

history doesn't repeat itself like we think. there are only a certain amount of outcomes to events. nothing is ever the same. ever.

 

its all about real comunism. not that bullsh*t crap theyve been trying, im talking about full blown animal farm

 

but that day just added fuel to the fire. Things were somewhat recoverable then....

do you know how much in debt this country is? Especially with its crusades in the middle east which cost us billions of dollars, and ultimatly didn't amount to shit except for pissing middle easterns off and getting US soldiers killed.

sure, we brought down the talaban, disrupted al-queda, and ran off bin ladan and saddam hussen briefly. But what will be the repurcussions? What will be the cost of our actions, especially with the justification of one invasion windling with each passing day.

It's going to take either a miracle or a scandle for bush to get re-lected. Judging from the way the '00 election went, and the secrecy of the administration, and the shady misadventures that led to chaos in Iraq, all the while going over the UN's head, I wouldn't be surprized if it ended up being the latter.

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And if you think terrorists would be able to wipe out a couple of our larger cities they would need the support and infrastructure only a country can provide...didn't we just eliminate one such country? Nope we did two!!!

then what about real country's insteady of half-ass countrys? what about North Korea? ever think about their weapons program? you know they have rockets that can carry nuclear payload that can reach the west coast?

Or maybe another country with nuke capabilites, such as India or Pakistan, goes awol and things get into the wrong hands. Uh oh....

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I agree change will happen...just not in the drastic measures you think in.

why not? Look at what the world has become. Look at things in perspective.

This country we are so lucky to live in is, indeed, the great babylon. The 20th century was not just golden era for our country, but a golden era for human civilization, and mankind, as well. We accomplished so much in such a small time span. So many technological advancements, so many social advancements, so many medical advancements, and so many political advancements.

name a civilization that could play music with the ease as we can today. just that in its own is quite a big achievement. It may just be music, but music is harmony and life. A gift from the universe, from God.

cell phones.... Sure, they're great in emergency situations, but how often are they used for that? not very. In fact, 99.99% of the time, its just social chatter, artificial importance. Of course there's the people who use them and have no home phone, and that's understandable. But still, they're not necessary. Just convenient

SUV's.... why? we wouldn't need the idea of feeling safe if we were all driving smallish cars. All they do is get horrible gas mileage, thus depleting already low resources. Hell, if you want people to feel safe on the road, up the driving standards. This country is so lax in regard to getting a license. Go to Germany and check out their driving laws and you'll see what I mean. Again, convenience and false thinking.

If you people didn't know, the country has energy issues in the past, but more and more problems come up as the natural gas sources replenishes. Anyone who pays natural gas/heating and electric bills knows how hard and expensive it was on them last winter. It probably won't get much better unless some other source of power finally happens. Over 70% of the power in this country comes from natural gas plants. I think we can all imagine what would happen if, say.... we ran out. Can you imagine that, what it would be like for things to just not work anymore? And for us to just get up and leave it all behind? This scenario, btw, is feasible in about a decade, given the exponential growth of the nation/world.

There's the medical field.... Helping people stay alive longer than necessary. Sure, its sad for people to die. Nobody likes the idea. But we live in a society that fears death, and sees it as an ending instead of a beginning. But I guess this has more to do with the advancement in our technology's and the desire to 'stay around.' But we're living too long. People who should have died instead get a second chance, which of course would be a good thing. But its getting to the point to where people can't do anything themselves, but their still alive. Me personally, I wouldn't want to be 80 and have to get assistance to shit or piss. I rather die in my prime.

And lets not forget about the breakthrough drugs of the late nineties to today. Now, instead of allergies, you have blurred vision, and instead of stomach acid running amuck, you have the shits. You give some to take some, I guess. Also, something to mention: just about every major medical breakthrough for the past 100 years has been in the US. Again, going back to the babylon comment.....

Politics have gone a long way. Or have they?
Sure, we are more free than every other civilization, but mankind was even more free when there was no civilization. Politicians are still crooked as hell, only out to put themselves in history. Local, state, nationwide, whatever. Always scandal, always problems...

Corporations..... Name a truly 'good' one.

Some examples
Viacom - owns MTV, MTV2, VH1, Nickelodeon, BET, and Paramount Pictures, the movie company. Guess who controls the youth of the nation. All the programing is the same. The sponsors are the same, too. Turn on nickelodeon sometime, and watch rap artists performing for our toddlers up to 12 years old, and most of the middle class white americans, who can afford cable. I'll admit cultural diffusion is cool and all, but the minute the push it upon us in the name of the mighty dollar is the minute we become one culture.

Clear Channel communications - actually, they're headquartered here, or at least this is where they started. They currently own over 1000 radio stations, with the next competitor sitting at maybe 70 stations. They also own most of the major music venues across the country. Ever go to a concert lately? Pay $40 for shitty seats to see Dave Mathews. Or even better, $70 for lollapalooza, plus $6 per 12 oz. beer, and $4 20 oz. bottled water, and $3 hotdogs. Also, go city to city, and hear the same damn station names (kiss, mix, beat, etc) playing the same damn overplayed songs.

Microsoft - How can you hate them? They gave us the computer as we know it. Well, they kinda stole the idea, but what's the difference? they're the ones who put it all together. And built on it, making us go buy new ones, and then built on it some more, etc etc etc ad infintium. The biggest thing they've succeeded at was getting billions of people to give them at least $700 for a new machine every other year or so.

maybe they've been good to get us to where we are now, but what for? So our lives are easier? It creates less worry and more certainty? I'll tell you this, the only certainty is uncertainty, and that because our lives have been made easier, it makes us more lazy/fat (like the greeks and romans), it creates mental problems and strain (ADD is a good example. But now we have Adult ADD, for all you people who slipped through the cracks during childhood).

but the biggest thing, as far as my concern, is computers. They're a big thing. One of the signs of the downfall of our society. Think back to the 80's with me for a second:
Most normal people who grew up before 1985 know of these things called board games and puzzles. Most families played them together at least one day a week. Of course, there's the families with drunks and cokeheads who didn't get much at all, but I know my family got together each sunday after dinner and played a game. Most people I know had the same childhood.

But television just got better and better. Soon, people were so concerned with their soaps, they didn't care about the REAL drama going on in their own family, or if they did care, they didn't do anything to fix it, even though they could have.

and then came along home game systems, like atari and kleciovision, etc. Which helped push the home PC, at the same time laying down the foundation for PSII, Xbox and such. Now people can sit around for hours finishing a game, and what do they learn from it? If anything, we've learned that violence IS indeed the answer.

But then along comes the internet. Our society's false god, which will become even more evident with the unveiling of Wi-Fi, or Wireless Fidelity. High speed Internet access without wires, since it uses the atmosphere to beam information. Now you can ask 'god' (or google, whichever you prefer) anything you ever wanted to know, only instead of the normal God's lack of immediate answers, you instead get you answer on demand.

Yes, everything I've mentioned and knock upon has its good points. It would be foolish to say they don't. But again, they're conveniences that are self-indulgent and unnecessary.

But everything is right on path. This is all part of a bigger plan, and one day something of such great magnitude will happen that the people of the world will take a breath and think.... and finally there will be agreement, and there will be right, and things will look up, even if things aren't as advanced as they once were.

but until then (I'll say 2011-2013, depending on calendar accuracy), this is the decline.

and there's so much that goes unmentioned as well. Just know that things already peaked, and that was the 90's.

It's just with as far as education, and knowledge has come, yet we're still no different than the roman or greek empires....

The balance of the universe, and of God, will prevail.

or so go my beliefs, anyways. This is just the proof that has been presented to me, and its all I need to draw my own conclusions. Beleive what you want to.