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mofo
Hobby Jingoist
Registered: 04/05/08
Posts: 2,232
Loc: Donkey Kong Kill Screen
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Is America Over?
#9830092 - 02/19/09 10:11 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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We seem to be losing not only our competitive edge, but also our will to prevail and our visionary ingenuity. Has the world turned?
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grymmtymm
lostinthought
Registered: 03/29/08
Posts: 1,137
Loc: inside your head
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: mofo]
#9830138 - 02/19/09 10:16 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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nothing lasts forever and you never know when your turn is up....
sucks but that's the way it goes...
-------------------- If you always do what you always did you always get what you always got.
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Tedwilto
Veni, vidi, vici
Registered: 12/08/08
Posts: 5,158
Loc: Sunny Afternoon in
Last seen: 12 years, 7 months
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: grymmtymm]
#9830182 - 02/19/09 10:24 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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-------------------- Song of the week, click Huey: Song of the week list in journal.
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BrnDubies
interloper
Registered: 02/06/08
Posts: 188
Loc: the Green Mountains
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: mofo]
#9830285 - 02/19/09 10:41 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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America is too individualized to say things about 'our competitive edge', 'our will to prevail' or 'our visionary ingenuity' that effectively capture the state of the country. It's possible to use statistics to describe the majority, but in a country this large 100+ million people can be considered a minority. I think this whole idea of The Fall of America has become a media frenzy that is clouding a more specific story: the failure of the federal reserve to operate within it's own system. Manipulating the economy through interest rates is a system of control that is no longer working. It's not at all surprising that a system utilizing the mechanics of fractional-reserve banking could experience a recession like this.
Maybe it would be more appropriate to talk about losing the image of our competitive edge, will to prevail and visionary ingenuity.
-------------------- the pain of war can not exceed the woe of aftermath
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ScavengerType
Registered: 01/24/08
Posts: 5,784
Loc: The North
Last seen: 10 years, 5 months
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: Tedwilto]
#9830295 - 02/19/09 10:43 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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George Orwell said in "1984" (paraphrase from memory here):
The ruling class never relinquishes control of society unless it is by their choice.
I always took it to mean that the ruling class chooses to relinquish it's power by refusing to show maturity or responsibility to continue to run the society further. It applies to the world in your towns workplaces and nations as much as in global politics.
I'll never forget this truism, it is one of the most insightful ones I've ever learned and has shown to be open to many different contexts whenever applied to power dynamics.
-------------------- "Have you ever seen what happens when a grenade goes off in a school? Do you really know what you’re doing when you order shock and awe? Are you prepared to kneel beside a dying soldier and tell him why he went to Iraq, or why he went to any war?" "The things that are done in the name of the shareholder are, to me, as terrifying as the things that are done—dare I say it—in the name of God. Montesquieu said, "There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of God." And I begin to feel that’s true. The shareholder is the excuse for everything." - Author and former M6/M5 agent John le Carré on Democracy Now. Conquer's Club
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buckwheat
Cynically Insane
Registered: 12/09/02
Posts: 11,179
Loc: Not Enough Characters to ...
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: mofo]
#9831179 - 02/20/09 01:14 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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If we are losing who's winning?
It's more like we are shooting ourselves in the foot. How can we reward visionary ingenuity while rewarding losers and punishing winners?
I always get a kick out of this belief that Americans are special somehow. "Our will to prevail","the American worker".Both dem and Rep candidates spout this crap all the time. We just picked the right system and now that we are going away from it these past decades. It shouldn't be surprising we are losing all those things.
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aDoS
freedom lover
Registered: 06/18/05
Posts: 7,590
Loc: land of the free
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: mofo]
#9831206 - 02/20/09 01:20 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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I think the United States will remain the #1 nation in the world until the day the Lord returns.
-------------------- "If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution - then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise." - Aldous Huxley GIVE ME OPIATES OR GIVE ME DEATH
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lines
Stranger
Registered: 08/06/08
Posts: 1,409
Loc: USA
Last seen: 3 years, 11 months
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: aDoS]
#9831575 - 02/20/09 04:33 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Are people here actually suggesting that they like the idea of The USA telling other countries what to do? The USA should only offer other nations advice if people of those nations are asking for advice. People who derive their sense of importance based upon telling others what to do are people who lack a life of their own. They lack hobbies and interests of their own. Any desire by The USA to meddle in the affairs of other countries is the result of Americans not knowing how to enjoy their own lives due to not having any hobbies and interests of their own.
Edited by lines (02/20/09 04:34 AM)
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 1 month, 19 days
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: aDoS]
#9831625 - 02/20/09 05:08 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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> I think the United States will remain the #1 nation in the world until the day the Lord returns.
He came, He saw, He left in disgust.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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Lakefingers
Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: mofo]
#9831689 - 02/20/09 05:48 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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the world has turned but the USA might still hold on
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
Registered: 10/08/02
Posts: 44,175
Last seen: 5 months, 8 days
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: mofo]
#9831737 - 02/20/09 06:17 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
mofo said: We seem to be losing not only our competitive edge, but also our will to prevail and our visionary ingenuity. Has the world turned?
It is quite an assumption that these things are true.
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Jack Albertson
bismillah rahmani rahim
Registered: 04/14/06
Posts: 10,065
Loc: SOLARIS
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america's done for. and it's about goddamn time, now maybe people will finally wake up.
-------------------- Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say "I think," "I am," but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose.Man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time TRANSCEND
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
Registered: 10/08/02
Posts: 44,175
Last seen: 5 months, 8 days
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How do you figure?
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Jack Albertson
bismillah rahmani rahim
Registered: 04/14/06
Posts: 10,065
Loc: SOLARIS
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: Redstorm]
#9831769 - 02/20/09 06:35 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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how do i figure what? that it's over or that people will wake up?
-------------------- Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say "I think," "I am," but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose.Man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time TRANSCEND
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LunarEclipse
Enlil's Official Story
Registered: 10/31/04
Posts: 21,407
Loc: Building 7
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Why don`t we stop fooling ourselves? The game is over, Over, Over. No good times, no bad times, There`s no times at all, Just The New York Times, Sitting on the windowsill Near the flowers.
We might as well be apart. It hardly matters, We sleep separately.
And drop a smile passing in the hall But there`s no laughs left `Cause we laughed them all. And we laughed them all In a very short time.
Time Is tapping on my forehead, Hanging from my mirror, Rattling the teacups, And I wonder, How long can I delay? We`re just a habit Like saccharin.
And I`m habitually feelin` kinda blue.
But each time I try on The thought of leaving you, I stop... I stop and think it over.
-------------------------
Each time I try on the thought of leaving America, I stop... I stop and think it over.
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
Registered: 10/08/02
Posts: 44,175
Last seen: 5 months, 8 days
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The former.
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Jack Albertson
bismillah rahmani rahim
Registered: 04/14/06
Posts: 10,065
Loc: SOLARIS
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: Redstorm]
#9831846 - 02/20/09 07:21 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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it's a matter of survival. A real human knows how to survive.
-------------------- Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say "I think," "I am," but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose.Man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time TRANSCEND
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
Registered: 10/08/02
Posts: 44,175
Last seen: 5 months, 8 days
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The former was your claim that it's over for the US. I'm not sure that's clear.
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Jack Albertson
bismillah rahmani rahim
Registered: 04/14/06
Posts: 10,065
Loc: SOLARIS
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Re: Is America Over? [Re: Redstorm]
#9831989 - 02/20/09 08:18 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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well clearly im confused as to the usage of that word. but i think it's clear, i mean there will still be an america, but the america that we're used to is on its deathbed.
-------------------- Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say "I think," "I am," but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose.Man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time TRANSCEND
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs
Registered: 10/08/02
Posts: 44,175
Last seen: 5 months, 8 days
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What makes you think this?
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