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Why Does the Good Life End?
Pajamas Media ^ | 9/25/11 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 09/26/2011 7:08:46 AM PDT by JudyM

A look Back

People just don’t disappear. Look at Germany in 1946 or Athenians in 339 B.C. They continue, but their governments and cultures end. Aside from the dramatic military implosions of authoritarian or tribal societies — the destruction of Tenochtitlan, the end of Nazism, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the annexation of tribal Gaul — what brings consensual states to an end, or at least an end to the good life?

The city-states could not stop 30,000 Macedonians in a way — when far poorer and 150 year earlier — they had stopped 300,000 Persians descending on many of the same routes. The French Republic of 1939 had more tanks and troops on the Rhine than the Third Reich that was busy overrunning Poland. A poorer Britain fought differently at el-Alamein than it does now over Libya. A British battleship was once a sign of national pride; today a destroyer represents a billion pounds stolen from social services.

(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: elitists; government; liberty; sloth
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To: JudyM

Those raised in the lap of luxury are unwilling to fight thru pain and suffering to keep it; when they do realize it is necessary to do so, it is too late.


21 posted on 09/26/2011 10:15:45 AM PDT by ctdonath2 ($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com/)
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To: Alas Babylon!

The french have been great at blundering wars ever since rome annexed gaul.


22 posted on 09/26/2011 12:10:47 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: Sherman Logan

I’ll do some research on this and let you know what I find.


23 posted on 09/26/2011 12:36:06 PM PDT by JGT
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To: JGT

Cool!


24 posted on 09/26/2011 12:47:19 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Alas Babylon!

Now the whites are the scapegoats but—this will not last— When the New Order Comes it will not be minority driven thing.


25 posted on 09/26/2011 5:39:17 PM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: JudyM
Why Does the Good Life End?

because the Good Lord willeth :)

26 posted on 09/28/2011 2:20:20 AM PDT by Cronos (www.forfiter.com)
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To: JudyM
Look at Germany in 1946 or Athenians in 339 B.C. They continue, but their governments and cultures end.

This is incorrect.

German culture did not end in 1946. Naziiism is not THE key feature of German culture. Germanic culture in fact stretches back nearly a thousand years and has great musicians like Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Handel, great writers and philosophers like Goethe, Kant etc.

To say that German culture ended in 1946 is wrong.

Athens may have lost its empire in 338 to Philip, but it's culture and indeed government remained.

27 posted on 09/28/2011 2:24:16 AM PDT by Cronos (www.forfiter.com)
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To: JGT

it could have lasted longer in the US. I think the popular election of senators has played at part in this decline.


28 posted on 09/28/2011 2:26:21 AM PDT by Cronos (www.forfiter.com)
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To: mamelukesabre

“Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.”

— James Burnham


29 posted on 09/28/2011 2:49:41 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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