Life in America

What is going on with this country? We seem to be out of control and, maybe, in a cultural freefall. It seems that way to me anyway.

Maybe it's because I was born in the second half of the Forties and raised in a conservative home in the Fifties and 60's that I believe this. Or maybe I am becoming my father, it's hard to say. But I am beginning to see there is a rather bad future in store for this country and, if so, that means a bad future for the world.

You see, I think America is critical to the well-being of the world. If America loses its prominence, what country would take our place? What country would be the "beacon of hope" for the rest of the world?

I once thought there wasn't a big difference in political systems, that humans simply adapted to whatever system they were raised in. And, to some extent, that is true. Humans do adapt to the systems they live under. But they always had an ideal, a model, to give them hope.

What if that model, that ideal, became Russia or China... or Iran? Or worse? What if there was no America anymore? When Rome fell, there was chaos... the Dark Ages... a period covering hundreds of years that came after the Pax Romana was no more. That the peace that Rome ruled over wasn't all that peaceful doesn't matter, there was order, there was structure. That Rome ruled with an iron hand wasn't as important as its reputation.

It is unlikely that I will live to see what the world will become but my son will, as will his children. I hope they will prosper and thrive but I am not optimistic.