[I didn't recall writing that, so I checked the archives and found that in fact I did not write that; I was quoting Guardian columnist Morris Berman, who wrote an excellent Decline-N-Fall article about the US post-9-11. The column has held up well. Below is the beginning of Berman's piece along with a link to the rest. (BTW, thanks to Carrol for retrieving Doug's comment. The typo "American poopulation" was most felicitous.)]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- underestimates?
Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> Sat Oct 13 16:54:40 PDT 2001
>From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com>
>
>>The U.S.
>>sustains its imperial power in part by its willingness to commit
>>extravagant excesses of violence. Someday it won't work, but it has
>>plenty of times in the past.
>>
>>Doug
>
>Yes, see also the Romans, Ottomans, et al. Extravagant excesses of
>violence
>work spiffingly ... until they don't. I think it's premature to say one
>way
>or the other whether we're at the "until-they-don't" phase.
[More from the Dept. of Horrifying Historical Parallels, Decline & Fall Div. A compelling article, IMO.]
Waiting for the barbarians
By Morris Berman The Guardian October 6, 2001
When I wrote my recent book, The Twilight of American Culture, my focus was on what might be called "inner" barbarism, the structural factors endemic to American society that were, I believed, bringing about its disintegration.
The contemporary American situation could be compared to that of Rome in the Late Empire period, and the factors involved in the process of decline in each case are pretty much the same: a steadily widening gap between rich and poor; declining marginal returns with regard to investment in organisational solutions to socioeconomic problems (in the US, dwindling funds for social security and medicare); rapidly dropping levels of literacy, critical understanding, and general intellectual awareness; and what might be called "spiritual death": apathy, cynicism, political corruption, loss of public spirit, and the repackaging of cultural content (eg "democracy") as slogans and formulas. ...
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2001/2001-October/021538.html> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl