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DECLINE of EMPIRES: The Signs of Decay

eon3 · 623.9K views · 2008-01-23 · 1:03:01

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Overview

Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback and Sorrows of Empire, lectures on parallels between the decline of the Roman and Soviet empires and the United States. He argues the US shows the same symptoms: overextension, corruption, and an inability to reform.

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Cited in threads on American decline, civil unrest and economic crisis as a classic statement of the imperial-decay thesis.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2018–2023

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hexbinencoded · 2020-09 · Recommendation

Yep. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Actual exceptionalism ended coinciding with the end of WW2. It's America's slow and steady decline like Rome. 250 years / 10 generations is about all a civilization typically lasts. Apathy, corruption, incompetence, disorder, inequality, poverty, decay, tyrants, and ultimately: dissolution. Here's an insightful prognostication by the late, great Chalmers Johnson around 2005: [VIDEO]

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sacnoradhq · 2023-03 · Reference

"Decline of Empires: The Signs of Decay": Jan 22, 2008; Chalmers Johnson. [VIDEO] Apathy, learned helplessness, inaction, cult-like fervor, magical thinking, pan-colonial ambitions, and inability to fund or defend itself lead a society to ruin. The thing is that every 8-12 generations (250+-50 years), a civilization must rework or recommit itself or it slides into decline and decay. No rampant conservative moral panic crusade, violent upheaval, civil war, or totalitarian junta can rebuild what divides left or right, or rebalances fewer haves and many more have nots.

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1letterunixname · 2022-09 · Reference

The title of this piece is clickbait and inaccurate compared to the content. And low quality media source. The speaker is credible (being CM, but it assumes it's an entirely authentic video). This is partly a redux of the ideas of Chalmers Johnson but extends farther into macro economics, history, and current events. [VIDEO] It's also doom prediction, in the spirt of people like Thom Hartmann.

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Video by eon3, played through YouTube.

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