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Are We Living Through The End Of An Empire?

1.2M views · Dec 1, 2023 · Education

Second Thought

1.9M subscribers

Comments · 6.8K

@zacka9438 · 2 years ago
As a non American I really do hope America becomes just another normal country that cares for its own citizens and not bombing farmers thousands of miles away.
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@manwithdominantclaw5320 · 2 years ago
Imagine if, when Rome declined, instead of just fracturing and resulting in new nations, Rome had the ability to end the planet by attempting to cling to power, either by consuming so hard they cook the place, or through spite with a ridiculous arsenal of nuclear warheads
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@andybeyer2230 · 2 years ago
Man, you saved my ass. I almost forgot to think about the Roman empire today.
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@neiarohe · 1 year ago
The empire is falling before our eyes and it definitely will happen sooner rather than later…
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@oldtownscouts3712 · 2 years ago
Crumbling infrastructure, rampant corruption, military stretched over multiple conflicts, and severe inequality fit the bill for the US right now pretty well
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@ahmedrazick4946 · 2 years ago
"An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war." – Charles de Montesquieu
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@MatanteDodo · 2 years ago (edited)
The mention Asimov's Foundation resonates with me; one paragraph that always stuck with me was when the character pointed at a broken elevator sign and said "this is the empire declining". The person he was talking to thought he was exagerating, but he went on to explain: if low cost but highly visible repairs are being neglected, what do you think happens to the high cost invisible ones? If infrastructure is decaying, the empire is already falling. Edit: I won't delete this comment because it would feel rude to remove context for all the discussion that happened under it, but I must correct myself: I must have mentally mashed several bits of books together and ended up with a thoroughly misremembered quote, and I haven't been able to find where each bit came from. Sorry about that.
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@eyyy2271 · 2 years ago (edited)
Another thing that absolutely fucked us is our urban planning. The moment shit hits the fan, this country will be unsalvageably fucked, especially when people are stranded in their isolated suburbs without food…
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@thecreatornooj1328 · 2 years ago
the worst part of this is that the solutions to prevent collapse are actually simple, they just require 1) a lot of work and 2) for the greed of the powerful to be culled and 3) For a certain part of society to admit that there are problems that need dire solutions. So we are fucked.
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@reall6229 · 2 years ago
Another thing worth mentioning too is that the world today moves at a MUCH faster pace than the world two thousand years ago did, or even just 200 years ago did
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@InfoSide122 · 1 year ago
Making an enemy of everyone will not make you last for long.
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@SciFi2285 · 2 years ago
It is not a question of whether the American empire will fall. It obviously will. The more important question is how it will fall. A slow decline in living standards?  Partition into smaller states? Civil war(s)? Environmental disaster? People no longer believing in the mythology that unifies the imperial project?
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