Terminal Decline

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Darrell Castle argues and presents evidence for the proposition that our nation may have reached a state of terminal decline.

TERMINAL DECLINE: the life cycle of nations and how we can determine when they reach a state of terminal decline.

Nations have life spans like people, and their life spans are often observable. A nation begins its existence and its rise, based on a shared determination and a strong work ethic. These things propel its rise to a high level of productivity which in turn creates prosperity. A greater and greater abundance is enjoyed by the nation’s population, which leads the population to become easy prey to empty political claims that largesse from the state can and will enrich all. The largesse results in complacency, which then turns into apathy.

When a nation reaches its peak, a majority of the people will have traded in their work ethic for the un-achievable promise of ever-increasing government largesse. At that point the decline is terminal, and set in stone. The population never realizes that the largesse to which it is addicted is, in effect, the reason for the ever increasing need for more and more largesse because the declining work ethic has destroyed prosperity. Once this has occurred the work ethic continues in decline and the nation continues into a death spiral.

A nation reaches terminal decline not just economically but in many ways. Moral values, sound principles of economics, productivity, an independent media and basic freedoms, once taken for granted, all decline together.
Education levels decline to the point where the only things being published whether in electronic media or print media are more empty promises, along with empty theories to support them. The classic mistake of empowering the government to take charge and make changes usually results in the weight of the nanny state’s boot on the neck of the economy, which causes the economy to lose its vibrancy and its way.

These things work to the detriment of all except those directly connected to or employed by the government. The government also recognizes this and tries to employ more and more, and even imports more and more, people to become dependent on its largesse. The nation peaks and heads to eventual collapse as government actions continue to feed the decline.

The question then becomes what happens after the crash? Will the nation be able to just hit the reset button and start over? Will new James Madisons and Thomas Jeffersons emerge to restart the process? The decline envelops everything and all aspects of socio-economic and political existence are included. The nation must be completely rebuilt from scratch. Moral certitude, which once destroyed, is virtually impossible to rebuild. A sound economic foundation, a return to productivity, and a solid work ethic, require basic freedoms to drive them. If it were even possible to accomplish these things it would require generations. Nations normally are never able to return to their former levels of prominence.

Some of the things that our society faces which have led me to this conclusion are everyday news. Many people seem unable or unwilling to keep two thoughts simultaneously in their heads. For example, it is quite possible to oppose the police murdering citizens and also oppose citizens murdering police at the same time.

The security system that holds true in America is trust, and that trust plays out as legitimacy, which makes it possible to govern a huge nation mostly by consent. We have played the racial, religious, etc., card one time too often, and it is having results. It is not possible to set one group against another endlessly without serious consequences. Suddenly our fragility is so obvious that it looks as if we might morph into an unrecognizable America at any moment. Rule from above through dissension below is tearing apart the very fabric of American society.

After Dallas where do we go and what do we do? We have created a militarized police force and at the same time a racist, terroristic group – and both are tolerated. Some say withdraw the police force but at the same time some cities are already basically at war. There are dozens of casualties of this war in Chicago each weekend. Without the police no ordinary citizen could leave his home. We try hard to spin this narrative into something that makes sense but we are unable to do so.

The President can’t seem to move past the racial rhetoric for which he is known. The police officers in Dallas were apparently murdered by a racist terrorist because they were white, but the President can’t admit that. Instead he has to equate them with the killing of Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile. Those cases are under investigation so nothing is certain at this point but there is no evidence that I’ve seen that indicates they were killed because they were black.

Lies will no longer work but the status quo keeps on trying. The status quo is on borrowed time and payment looks certain. Perhaps that’s the way the status quo planned it.

At least that’s the way I see it.