Tiptree
Administrator
Member # 844
|
posted 06-11-2020 07:44 PM
We seem to be in the worst phase of a repeating cycle in our country. About every 80 years our country enters into a time of great social upheaval accompanied by widespread violence.
The American revolution was born out of the social unrest under Britain's ever-increasing harsh treatment of the American colonies. The victory over our nemesis, Great Britain, in the Revolutionary War propelled America onto the world stage.
The civil war followed a period of increasing unrest as the abolition movement put economic pressure on the South; the victory over our nemesis, the Confederacy, opened up the West without the slave controversy and set America on a course to being a major power.
Following the double shock of the First World War and the 1918 flu, followed by the rapid rise of wealth inequality in the 20s, we entered the Great Depression and subsequent economic hardship, and then to World War II, which was the necessary culmination of unfinished business from WWI. We emerged from that prolonged crisis of two wars with Germany and social unrest between them as the undisputed leader of the free world and the economic powerhouse.
Now, in 2020, we are seeing a new upheaval in our national fabric. Another "double whammy" of a pandemic and the economic fallout from our unprecedented and ruinous response to it, along with violent social upheaval based upon perceived racial inequities raise the specter of another great transition.
The past transitions ended well. But, will this one end up as a transition to an even greater America, or will this mark the beginning of our decline?
The answer depends on how we, the citizens, respond. We are about to enter a period of horrible rancor and division; violence and hardship. Like the Great Depression, we are facing unprecedented wealth inequality. Like the civil war, racial tensions are driving the upheaval.
The differences are that we have no external enemies like the revolutionary war and WWI/WWII. It could be a great opportunity for an expansionist China to challenge us while we are divided and weak. Or an emboldened Russia to challenge us further in the world.
No matter what happens abroad, past history says we have a decade of unhealthy civil unrest ahead of us. Better strap it on tight and pray we yet again emerge stronger and better.
--------------------
Tiptree
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 13621 | From: Terre Haute, IN | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged
|
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic