Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Jackson Pemberton's avatar

That was an excellent piece of writing and it closely reflects my own thoughts over the past several years. I keep looking for the wise statesmen in the USA and keep coming up empty. If any of the politicians realize what is at stake, they are keeping quiet, although I think Trump comes closest to seeing it. Rand Paul also seems to get it. Some are thinking that generative AI is going to solve the stagnation problem, but it will crash and burn financially soon, and only accelerate the collapse.

Our trajectory as a nation does parallel features Howe wrote about in the Fourth Turning, and also Peter Turchin's books End Times, Ages of Discord, and War and Peace and War.

The West is collapsing now. The time when we reach either total anarchy or, more likely, martial law, is unpredictable. The West could exist on life support for some years or the end could come quickly. Time will tell.

Expand full comment
Fractal Inklings's avatar

All fair points but that doesn't mean the doomerism isn't overtly biased now. Many recent Orthodox converts tend to take this apocalyptic view similar to other sects in the past and condemn entire nations as inevitably corrupt. It's not really Christian. Correct re the massive problems the US faces but I'd argue Russia is in even worse shape across the board. Only natural resource income flows prop it up. It has no church attendance, massive abortion rates, terrible demographics, etc.

Expand full comment
16 more comments...

No posts