re: #74 cenotaphium

How do you figure? I mean, as a part of “the west” in a comparatively very liberal country, I’d like to know how my civilization will crumble.

We can look at Rome, first. It’s late here, so I’ll have to be sketchy. Rome ended up basically outsourcing its defense to barbarians, because Romans weren’t as interested. They also ended up with an inbred (not so much physically, but what happens to a closed group) ruling class, that spent money on the Emperor’s whim, with limited checks and balances.
Basically, people became less active in running their own lives and their country, and let others do it for them.

While governments make some advances, ultimately, it comes down to individuals; the governments pay but don’t necessarily develop. A system as I described tries to minimize risk, which also minimizes advancement - no risk, minimal advancement.
Rome eventually collapsed to the barbarians; we have more advanced adversaries (China) as well as barbaric ones (Al Qaeda and other jihadists).

And I see signs that we aren’t going to defend our culture. Some are real, like the desire to pull out of anyplace dangerous, without realizing that lets the danger get bigger. Another sign to me are things like the ending of Battlestar Galactica, and that few people actually found a problem with them just giving up and deciding their culture wasn’t worth preserving. I think that is representative of many people’s thoughts today.

Conservatives tend to think their culture is worth preserving, even when it isn’t, so what we need is the combination. The death of one means the other goes hog-wild.

I’m trying to write more to connect this, but it’s 12:30 AM where I live, and I am too tired. I would be glad to continue the discussion tomorrow when I’m awake.