And What Are The Odds?
OK, pay attention, kids: 2026 minus 1776 equals 250. Yes, the 250th anniversary of the United States – July 4, 2026 – is here, and it will never come again.
For all those years it’s been a wild ride through chaos thick and thin, ups and downs, wars galore, glory and shame, feast and famine, and mostly without wifi. But when the fireworks end and the wine runs out it will be time to start thinking seriously about: How long will it last?
No, that’s not a happy thought. But it’s important to think it so We The People do not get caught in the Twighlight’s Last Gleaming.
History teaches that nearly every nation and empire that has ever existed – big or small, mighty or puny – eventually became, well, history. Sometimes they’ve gone out with wimpers but also with bangs, booms, dead bodies, etc. So keep those go-bags packed.
The Great Roman Empire once sprawled into much of Europe, the Middle East and Africa but gradually dwindled until today it includes only a few blocks around that great little restaurant just off the piazza in Florence (try the tagliatelli al ragu – delicious).
The mighty British Empire of 1776 is a shadow of its former self and could Brexit to smithereens any minute; its Prime Minister – the sixth in the last ten years – just resigned. China, whose fearsome hordes once savaged the edges of Europe, has shrunk to a few hundred I-Phone factories. Cities of the once-great Mayans, Incas and Aztecs are now quiet stops on a tropical bus route.
What remains to remind us of the Great Empires of yore and not-so-yore are lots of crumbling walls, dusty tombs and alphabets even AI can’t read.
Could America soon become a haunted landscape of deserted shopping malls, collapsing bridges, abandoned stadiums/stadia, empty highways, etc.? Maybe. Given the unending chaos and disfunction coming out of our nation’s capital, it’s something to think about. What are the odds that the world’s First Democracy and Greatest Superpower will last until age 300? Or even until Halloween?
Fortunately, major foreign threats are focused elsewhere for now. Russia struggles to subjugate tiny Ukraine. China is hesitant to attack America, its biggest customer. Iran (formerly “Persia”) was once the world’s first true superpower, but after twelve centuries its fearsome warriors will soon be working the toll-booths at the Strait of Hormuz.
But the brightest minds on social media (yes, those people) have suggested that the biggest threat to America is We The People. Their comments raise existential concerns, such as:
- When will our madman President plunge us into bankruptcy or nuclear war?
- Can his Vice President and Cabinet stop him? Will they?
- Should we make nice with, say, Uganda in case we have to move there?
Most concerning, however, is that this moment in our nation’s history has arrived because our Constitution worked exactly as We The People – well, those old dead wig-heads – designed it. That’s pretty scary. It means We did this to ourselves. We The People (not all of us, but enough) elected . . . him. And them.
Now we have to go through that election stuff all over again, hopefully to put better people in those jobs. Nicer, smarter people who won’t take so many bribes, or will at least share them. Because if America is headed for extinction, We The People have little choice but to go out with our Votes a-blazing!
Or, maybe move someplace that has universal healthcare.
Be First to Comment