"Future historians will note that American society peaked in the late 1960s"

[Guest]

-interesting and written well

[url]http://corporatemofo.com/society_and_antisocial_tendenc/reality_bites.html[/url]

[Guest]

I think everything comes in cycles in regards to values, standards, lifestyle, morals, health of the economy, etc.
Who knows what the future holds with the roles of women changing.

[Guest]

I love it when people say, "We live in the most hedonistic society the world has ever known." Let me know when we use people of other religions as torches to light our parties and night clubs, feed people on purpose to lions for entertainment, have a church in every city run by hookers where we can pay for sex "for good luck" and have legalized institutionalized child molestation as part of our education system. Then I might agree with the smacktard that says we are hedonistic.

[Guest]

Yeah, Rome

[Guest]

I didn't read it yet, but I find it hard for someone to say that "American society peaked" when American Society is still in ongoing...

[Guest]

neuro...arent the paralles of of ancient rome and our modern culture rather obvious? all great empires peak and fall. rome fell and in my opinion we arent too far behind. while this is a real downer for some id be happy to die today. id say capitalism is hedonism as greed is the reason we are in our current state of affairs. dont get me wrong capitalism has been great to me, but thats bc i always get mine. just some thoughts....

[Guest]

The article says WE this, WE that.. "When we think of art, we think of Warhol and Rothko" "... [we] are doomed to lives of obscure mediocrity." "Our famed irony and sarcasm were not a sign that we value nothing: They were self-defense in a world where nothing is valued."

We? Speak for yourself. I can fully believe the author is a depraved cynical "slacker" loser, who despite having a college degree can't get a decent job. And I fully believe that he's morally lost in a world where values are not as simple as they were (or as simple as he thinks they were) in the "golden age", and apparently not smart or independent enough to find values on his own outside of "Reality Bites" or "Fight Club".

Sucks to be him.

[Guest]

[quote1232428916=magnum]
neuro...arent the paralles of of ancient rome and our modern culture rather obvious? all great empires peak and fall. rome fell and in my opinion we arent too far behind. while this is a real downer for some id be happy to die today. id say capitalism is hedonism as greed is the reason we are in our current state of affairs. dont get me wrong capitalism has been great to me, but thats bc i always get mine. just some thoughts....
[/quote1232428916]

there are no parallels between the USA and Rome. Rome built its society on military success, when the military stopped being successful, it's collapse was imminent. A capitalist republic builds its success on monetary gain tempered with the rule of law. That is a self correcting system which Rome never had. I believe that our system will fall but we are far from seeing its height. Dogmatism will be Americas downfall not hedonism. As the government continues to regulate our freedoms people will become less inclined to accept it. Unlike Rome, there is no power that can bring about the US's collapse. We will eventually screw ourselves, but that is a long way off.

That being said, our technology is more likely to bring us down than our own beliefs or the beliefs of another culture.

[Guest]

dogmatism in our society is commonly used to disguise hedonism. follow the money.

[Guest]

its easy to agree with generalities.