The Decline and Fall of the United States

The New York Times featured a conversation between Dick Cavett and David Brooks yesterday that discussed whether the United States is in decline. The brief opinion piece barely scratched the surface of the issue — I'm sure that any serious analysis would take at least series of books — but both Brooks and Cavett both acknowledged pessimism for the U.S.

Will the United States continue to be a "great nation" for the foreseeable future? The question starts with an assumption that may not be true:The United States is a great nation. Militarily and economically powerful? Without a doubt. But great can suggest excellence as well as power. What the U.S. lack now, in my opinion, is intellectual and moral greatness, and I'm not sure the United States was ever a source of intellectual or moral greatness.

Americans love to be boosters and say that the USA is a great country, but as far as the decline of the United States as a concept goes, I go back to a quote that has been attributed to a number of famous thinkers, including Mark Twain and Will Rogers:

It's not what you don't know that hurts you; it's what you do know that ain't so.

More later,
Russ