How Has the Country Changed During Your Lifetime?

While attending the University of Arizona, taking a Western Civilization class (1968), the professor confidently stated that historically civilizations have a lifespan, on average, two-hundred and fifty years, give or take.

I thought that was ridicules. The United States would last like the Roman Empire, two thousand years or more. The instructor emphasized these countries did not collapse from any outside enemy, rather disintegrated (degenerated) from within.

The United States is now 246 years old (2022) and dying as a nation. I hear voices announce, “There is a bright-spot,” in the news, bullpucky. Once warned, our forefathers set the Republic in motion, a warning to be acknowledged that we, the future nation, would not be capable of keeping the Republic connected. We lack virtue. We lack the goodness and intellectual capacity required to sustain our experiment.

Rehashing the last seven decades within this document would be impossible to accomplish, and the result would be hundreds of pages. Each generation I have lived through proclaims a common mantra: “I’m glad I’m not raising children today.” To which offended. But now understand. Mother Nature is not our friend and is seeking to eradicate us. One has to wonder how bad the world must have been for God (for believers) to destroy his creation, humanity and every living thing (best guess fish survived), in the great flood, while today we continue to ravage, pollute everything we come in contact with. If man can create it, he will pervert, subvert, corrupt, and abuse it.

Utopia is a place of ideal perfection, especially in laws, government, and social conditions. The Prime Directive. The Garden of Eden, Heaven, Paradise, Shangri-La. God’s Country (Blake Shelton).

Everything has changed; nothing has changed.

Update 2025.

On July 4, 2026, the country will celebrate 250 years, and I fear the professor was right. Extinction number six is upon us. The cause is irrelevant. Our choices are: reduce (greenhouse gases), adapt (to changes already happening), or suffer the consequences (Dr. Lonnie Thompson, https://byrd.osu.edu/canary-movie). If you’re a member of the 1% club, beware. The haves versus the others. Check out my novel, a work in progress: https://www.keithemaynard.com/dystopia