The wierd thing is that there isn't a single concensus as to what that bad thing is. Maybe you guys can take a crack at it. Suggest your own tinfoil hat doomsday theory that will bring America in for hard times.
Mine is that a series of tactical nuclear weapons will be easily shipped across our Southern border, smuggled innocuously into strategic positions and then simultaneously detonated to cause a mass panic and confusion. Instant Dark Ages with just a push of a button.
Ummm... the Bill of Rights effectively ceases to exist...?
The wages of the welfare state are a loss of freedoms. That is tyranny. Too many people would rather accept that than personal responsibility.
Personally I think the jobs being shipped out are just as damaging as WMDs being shipped in.
Hypocritical liberal moral equivalence of course wouldn't have anything to do with perssimism. /sarcasm
Our elites, our educated and successful professionals, are the ones who are supposed to dig us out and lead us. I refer specifically to the elites of journalism and politics, the elites of the Hill and at Foggy Bottom and the agencies, the elites of our state capitals, the rich and accomplished and successful of Washington, and elsewhere.
I think Peggy is perpetually negative. Reading her these days is like eating tacks.
I'm a helluva lot more conservative than she is and I'm guessing alot more informed on history as well. Every era has it's problems. And I'm damn confident that they will be resolved, just as they always have. The gloom is in Peggy's mind.
ping
I think Peggy's being overly gloomy. People have been forecasting the end of the world for over a thousand years. But fanatical islam is an insidious enemy and the liberals in this country have no idea what it's like to fight for anything.
My sense is of something real, an invasion that has already occurred via immigration, legal and illegal, where assimilation is no longer required but disparaged. This comes under the general heading of Political Correctness, which has blurred distinctions between right and wrong, patriotic and unpatriotic, truth and lie, left and right and just plain common sense. To sum it up, we have lost a sense of SHARED VALUES, as part of a NATIONAL IDENTITY. National sovereignty is no longer a given, in the wake of NAFTA, CAFTA and FTAA, leading to a North American union.
But, hey, maybe I'm wrong!
Peggy's editorial is unfortunately timed, though, since we are at least somewhat back on track with the rescinding of Miers's nomination, a HUGE relief.
Hillary is elected President.
Communism is defeated, Osama is reduced to making propaganda videos, Saddam is in jail, and democracy is emerging in the Arab Middle East.
Life is great.
I just expect civil war. Some constitional issue, or some crisis will escalate fast, and whop! One week, we're Yugoslavia, the next week we're Serbs vs. Croats. The MSM has already declared war. Just a matter of time before other segments join in.
Or maybe not.
Sigh...who is John Galt?
We have cleared the world battlefield using conventional weapons of our choice. Others challenge us now using weapons of their choice [we call terrorism] for which we have no current answer other than nuke them all.
We are counting on the 'information/consumer society' as the economic engine to replace the smoke stack factory production engine.
Politicans of both parties accuse the other of being corrupt and under special interest control, unfortunately they are both right.
Throw in gated communities, drug use, gross language, abortion and marriage dissolution, diminished reproduction, frivolous law suits, job uncertainities, rising health care and education costs.
Now why should people, who can't document with tables, be concerned about the future?
Sorry, but I can't agree with anything, because the media COMMONLY speaks of what they THINK they see, without seeing a damn thing, just look at Chris Matthews and his Rove Libby indictment countdown. I SEE that he see's nothing, but thinks he see's much more, and I am tired of him talking about what he thinks he sees without seeing anything.
that particular symantic excercise over, lets move to the second paragraph where the author does exactly what I just did, only didn't say anything or create a comparisson.
This looks like a pathetic first year philosophy major spouting nothing and making it look like something in the perfect emmulation of Dehrida, or derhida, or deridha or whatever that know nothing "philosopher" is named.
The feelings P.N. raise are what I feel in my gut. Kinda like being high up on a wobbly ladder not knowing if the next step will cause me to go crashing down. It is with American optimism and faith that a lot of us get up each morning and try to make a better life for our families. I guess in the final analysis that's what motivates me. Once you read the article you find most of us are still on the ship, but the cautious sailor's will have their life jacket on.
Anarchy