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DECLINE of EMPIRES: The Signs of Decay

eon3Recommended by 1 HN commenter across 1 month, 2018–2023
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lecture · general · 2018–2023 on HN

Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback and Sorrows of Empire, lectures on parallels between the decline of the Roman and Soviet empires and the United States. He argues the US shows the same symptoms: overextension, corruption, and an inability to reform.

Cited in threads on American decline, civil unrest and economic crisis as a classic statement of the imperial-decay thesis.

7 comments from Hacker News

@hexbinencoded2020-09 · in “The N95 mask shortage America can't seem to fix”

Yep. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Actual exceptionalism ended coinciding with the end of WW2. It's America's slow and steady decline like Rome. 250 years / 10 generations is about all a civilization typically lasts. Apathy, corruption, incompetence, disorder, inequality, poverty, decay, tyrants, and ultimately: dissolution. Here's an insightful prognostication by the late, great Chalmers Johnson around 2005: ▶ this video

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@sacnoradhq2023-03 · in “”

"Decline of Empires: The Signs of Decay": Jan 22, 2008; Chalmers Johnson. ▶ this video Apathy, learned helplessness, inaction, cult-like fervor, magical thinking, pan-colonial ambitions, and inability to fund or defend itself lead a society to ruin. The thing is that every 8-12 generations (250+-50 years), a civilization must rework or recommit itself or it slides into decline and decay. No rampant conservative moral panic crusade, violent upheaval, civil war, or totalitarian junta can rebuild what divides left or right, or rebalances fewer haves and many more have nots.

@1letterunixname2022-09 · in “Charlie Munger Predicts Horrible Economic Crisis Where Everything Will Collapse”

The title of this piece is clickbait and inaccurate compared to the content. And low quality media source. The speaker is credible (being CM, but it assumes it's an entirely authentic video). This is partly a redux of the ideas of Chalmers Johnson but extends farther into macro economics, history, and current events. ▶ this video It's also doom prediction, in the spirt of people like Thom Hartmann.

@inscartwheelies2020-05 · in “Gripped by disease, unemployment and police outrage, America plunges into crisis”

America was already in a long, slow decline for decades. America: The Farewell Tour book by Chris Hedges DECLINE of EMPIRES: The Signs of Decay (2003) video by Chalmers Johnson ▶ this video

@forkexec2020-03 · in “Why Can't America Handle the Coronavirus Crisis?”

The simplified answer: the US is a late-stage civilization in gradual decline since either post-WW2 or about 1960. The "frog" has been "boiling" slowly for a long time and is almost cooked. See also: - America: The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges - Chalmers Johnson's Decline of Empires: Signs of Decay ▶ this video - The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon - The Rise and Fall of the Great Empires by Taylor