My real question here is that I would like people's opinions on how one Quora user, Stuart Davis, has answered this...basically I think he is saying that the USA as an empire has had its day, and is now following an historical pattern of decline.
So then I went to Stuart's profile to see if he is R v. L, liberal conservative if that contributes to his views...and this is how he characterizes himself: "Politically a centrist - I know this because those on the right say that I must be a socialist and the ones on the left say I am a political conservative, so I know I must be doing something right..."
Well I don't want his thesis to be true, of course. And I was thinking about Rooster's comment, something like, We are a unique breed here in the USA. So I was thinking of the commitment to freedom justice and such here, maybe like nothing the world has ever seen before, and will that ultimately carry the day for the USA? I am NOT thrilled about China coming in as the next great empire...
Anyway, the idea (which I got from Rooster), that maybe there is a kind of national spirit that grows up in a society? Thinking of the founding of Germany, and Bismarck for example; I read that the German people were acculturated to hierarchy, the Kaiser, and the phenomenal genius of Bismarck. Then, the idea that national spirit helped pave the way for Hitler and Nazism as the next great autocrat along the lineage of Bismarck and the Prussian militaristic success?
* * *
See Emma Lazarus (I just read this is a Petrarchan sonnet) and then below for Stuart's link:
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
So, if you have thoughts, could our USA national egalitarian spirit and commitment to the value of the individual, could that reverse this putative decline of the American empire into another beacon of freedom? Here is the answer given by Stuart Davis: https://www.quora.com/Can-Americans-cope-with-the-possibility-of-things-getting-worse-and-staying-worse-in-the-future-Would-we-rather-lie-to-ourselves/answer/Stuart-Davis-3