What are the signs that the United States will follow the Roman Empire to the ashbin of history?
6 months ago
39 Comments
All world powers rise then fall. Those that once where on top have always become submissive. The Roman Empire is the prototype for this, Italy has not been a world power since, other than their failed attempt in WWII. The Vikings where once terrifying and rulers of their domain, now the Scandinavian countries are far from threatening. Spain was once a world power but since their defeat in their war with England, they have no global military influence. So it goes that the USA must suffer the indignantly of the turning wheel of fate and be crushed under it. Is the current situation the beginning of the undoing of American power? If it is, what is it that will kill the American domination of the world?
Tags: history
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This is a huge question! It cannot be answered in a "sound-byte"... in order to even give an answer this question requires MUCH needed research... (click-click-click... puff puff)...
I'm not so sure that "America" IS thee empire. Families are more of the empire than the country. It is certain families that pass the baton of control to what they deem their own.
An indication of national demise, according to my study of history... (puff puff)... Is superficial preoccupation. Like the Greeks with their bodies, The Romans with their armor, Egyptians with their decorations. Homosexuality also SEEMS more prevalent in the history of empires. Gluttony is another indicator. (Yah yah I know... that squeezing homosexuality between those two makes it LOOK negative.)
People round here are obsessed with their teeth, tan, bodies, hair, and clothing. While someone here in the U.S. finds it necessary to brush the lint off of their suit. Someone in Africa is brushing the flies off of their skin.
There are more "kings" (king like living conditions) in the U.S. than there have ever been in all of history (puff puff), in contrast to people of 250 years ago.
(puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff puff)... So It is a logical conclusion to me that humans are NOT original to this planet, since they unlike other animals that have evolved WITH the planet, are always struggling for balance within and without themselves.
"So It is a logical conclusion to me that humans are NOT original to this planet, since they unlike other animals that have evolved WITH the planet, are always struggling for balance within and without themselves."
Non sequitur I feel.
Just because humans are clever - think, feel, love and hate and can think about angels and devils and build Venice and go to the Moon, etc does not mean that they are from anywhere other than Earth. Darwinian theory is really quite convincing I find. Or am I to believe that human beings arrived on this planet and WOW, they looked a lot like apes and monkeys and even more amazing, they share most of the same DNA with chimps. Or may be an ancestor of humanity and ape and monkey was dropped on the planet by a passing spaceship and evolved into the three separate species we know today? But then, what about the fact that the dog, the cat, the lion, the frog, the bat, the fish each have two lungs, one heart, four limbs, two eyes, etc. Strange that the intelligent "visitors" who stayed were built on the same model as many of the other creatures already on this planet and share lots of the same DNA. Why shouldn't Darwinism explain our presence here? Mind, in the sense of human awareness and capability is different (we think), from that of apes and other animals, but it seems logical to me that it is a recent development that came out of what went before.
None of this is to say that I do not believe that there is no other life out there in the universe - I think it is quite likely that there is. However, I find it difficult to believe that it is going to be so like our own at the DNA level that humans could be shipped in from a far flung galaxy and seem to belong at the head of a line of development started separately on Earth, even though that was not the case.
Goliath - You might suggest that ALL life on this planet probably originated elsewhere and I would say fair enough that is a possibility - the DNA similarities between earth species does not preclude the notion that a race of extra-terrestrial beings seeded the planet by dropping a few handfuls of oofle dust into the primordial soup and waved a magic wand, which kick started life on earth. However, as much as you would like to think that we are extra-terrestrial in origin and other species are terrestrial,in origin, I think that you must abandon the idea in the face of the evidence.
(Cough!)
From the "Creation or Evolution" topic: http://www.grupthink.com/answer/66688
Ya'll,
I don't know WHERE or HOW something originated. I don't think origin exists, speaking on this scale. I have many perspectives and this is only one that I entertain.
You MIGHT have read before where I've written my reasons for the idea that humans have either been suddenly manipulated, or actually came from somewhere else.
Because according to Evolution, it is survival of the fittest, and we are not fit, not for our climate, terrain, shelter, or instinct even. A shark may not be able to make Kool-Aid, but it does know exactly where, on the planet, it is, and which way to go, under the water even, same with crows, as examples. A shark also does not create and do things that kill itself.
All animals on earth have a much greater adaptation to their environment, and their instinct is superior to knowledge. Even with our technology people perish in a Tsunami while the crow drops the French-Fry he found and gets out of dodge. With no external detector.
Entertaining this further... So it is clear that humans are STILL learning how to develop their instinct, through tools... like training wheels.
"A shark may not be able to make Kool-Aid, but it does know exactly where, on the planet, it is, and which way to go, under the water even, same with crows,"
similarly, electric yellow's got me by the brain-banana
Wut?
it means, say something intelligible!
""A shark may not be able to make Kool-Aid, but it does know exactly where, on the planet, it is, and which way to go, under the water even, same with crows,"
W_T_F?
whatever it is, its my new saying
example:
Person A- "Man I cannot believe she can't see my point"
Person B- "Well, you know, a shark may not be able to make Kool-Aid, but it does know exactly where, on the planet, it is, and which way to go, under the water even,
Person A- huh?
Person B- same with crows,
Jigglypuff:
Can we take this to court?
http://www.grupthink.com/grup/260
lol, I could never beat an insanity plea silly, rofl
This ---
"
I don't know WHERE or HOW something originated. I don't think origin exists, speaking on this scale. I have many perspectives and this is only one that I entertain.
You MIGHT have read before where I've written my reasons for the idea that humans have either been suddenly manipulated, or actually came from somewhere else.
Because according to Evolution, it is survival of the fittest, and we are not fit, not for our climate, terrain, shelter, or instinct even. A shark may not be able to make Kool-Aid, but it does know exactly where, on the planet, it is, and which way to go, under the water even, same with crows, as examples. A shark also does not create and do things that kill itself.
All animals on earth have a much greater adaptation to their environment, and their instinct is superior to knowledge. Even with our technology people perish in a Tsunami while the crow drops the French-Fry he found and gets out of dodge. With no external detector.
Entertaining this further... So it is clear that humans are STILL learning how to develop their instinct, through tools... like training wheels." ---
Is NOT unintelligible. Poorly written in some places but a VALID observation of contradiction in Darwin's theory, which has become RELIGION. May you never cease to question your root assumptions.
" but a VALID observation of contradiction in Darwin's theory, which has become RELIGION. May you never cease to question your root assumptions."
roflcopter!
a valid contradiction, lol, you slay me silly boi, its not just darwin's theory, but one that has be consistently re-affirmed on a near daily basis for like 150 years by millions of experiments, can you offer contradiction besides just unintelligible words?
Naah! F**k that! YOU show me "re-affirmed on a near daily basis for like 150 years by millions of experiments".
:-)
typical, dodge the question because you can't answer it, :P
ur lol'able, thx 4 being the gt court jester
"YOU show me "re-affirmed on a near daily basis for like 150 years by millions of experiments""
Here's a start:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1fGkFuHIu0
"typical, dodge the question because you can't answer it, :P" in context = L.E.T. (Intellectual Evasion Thumb-wrestling)
BUT... you are welcome I am fond of my Fool like qualities.
http://www.livingsto...iles/fool.gif
Holotone: No no no no no no no no. I'm not arguing about evolution. Chit! ... What I WAS talking about was Sudden alteration of DNA, OR Man not originating from here entirely.
Should any archaeologist find evidence that violates accepted theories, such finds are very likely to be ignored. Those few archaeologists who dare to support cryptoarchaeology would be ostracized from the scientific community. So odds of our learning of the possibility that our existence is due to alien - primate hybrids are very small. Also this whole string since I posted here last belongs in the topic answer: http://www.grupthink.com/answer/66688
Odoco:
Very true they would be ostracized
--
Not only an alien possibility, but gamma rays, or something that once was but we don't even know about. It IS possible to not know something, you know. It is plain to see that humans are the ONLY animals to not live well with nature. And are born ill equipped for their environment.
Goliath - (your Fool like qualities are wonderful - I am fond of them too).
"What I WAS talking about was Sudden alteration of DNA, OR Man not originating from here entirely."
I think you are saying that Man seems so different in many respects from other creatures that manipulation of the DNA by aliens could have happened. Yes, that is a possibility
If that really was the case then I suppose the manipulation might have occurred after the split between monkeys and apes and presumably the manipulation was with higher ape DNA?
However, I suppose it could have happened at the level of the primordial soup that all earth life sprung from.
In this scenario one would have to question why Man is the only animal that developed intelligence to the level he has.
I suppose the aliens might have progammed the soup so that higher intelligence would only be expressed when various other stages and changes had occurred in an organism first.
Perhaps the altered promordial soup was altered in such a way that earth life was bound to develop in a particular direction and the aliens left it to evolution to achieve this.
Both ways of thinking about this might have achieved the result of a higher animal like Man. However, one still has to think about the intelligent alien that went to he trouble to do this. Where did it originate? Was it the subject of an evolutionary process alone, or did some earlier intelligent beings seed our benvolent alien's ancestral primordial soup? Where does it end (or should I say begin?)
Why cannot it be that Life happened spontaneously and developed though many stages to reach Man - a sort of hierarchy. At the bottom there are minerals, then the most important part happens, something happens to the minerals and murk without alien intervention creating single celled organisms, then multi celled organisms, (split into plant and animal life happens somewhere in the chain of events), multi celled organisms grow and change in all directions. and adapt to circumstances, then another change happens - self awareness, then so on to greater levels of behavioural and cognitive ability to Man.
Goliath, I think with your artistic, and I think empathic mindset, that you would have been a great theologian in the past. But in the present when the existence of God is doubted, you look to replacements for God - the benevolent alien seeding planets with special DNA provides that replacement. I don't see this as a bad thing - often imagination and looking outside the box lead to wonderful discoveries and truth. I think science fiction at its best is great art and great science and can suggest all sorts of concepts that science then pursues in earnest. I feel that the best scientists probably have the rational, the emotional and the spiritual in their natures and, above all, vivid imagination. Science, when it is rational, logical and not given to inspirational flights of fancy is the poorer for it. Perhaps for you that is why evolution alone seems like a dull explanation for the multiplicity of life around us and the qualities of mind and emotion to be found in Man.