Whenever I think about the United States, I cannot help but remember the following quotation from Scottish historian Alexander Fraser Tytler on the purported cycle that all countries and empires go through:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
I am sure that someone, somewhere has compared this sequence to American history, but I cannot find anything. So I will pose some thoughts. As Matthew Parris notes, the United States might be in a period of decline.
The American colonies were in bondage under the British Empire. They gained spiritual faith and became very courageous. The colonies waged a war of independence to gain liberty. Over the ensuing decades of westward expansion, development, and industrialization, the United States gained an abundance of power, resources, and culture that became the envy of the world.
However, sometime in the mid-to-late twentieth century, Americans became complacent. They imagined that nothing — not the Soviet Union, not Japan, not China, and not Islamic terrorists — could ever harm the country. In the decades since the 1960s, Americans, particularly younger ones, became apathetic. They did not care that people were becoming increasingly materialistic. They did not care that the United States as a whole — from the federal government down to individual Americans — was falling deeper into debt as a result of living beyond its means. They became largely ignorant of world affairs. Americans did not care about the outside world as long as they could continue to live their comfortable lives like they had been living.
As a result, the United States became dependent on others. American depends on other countries, many of which are in the Middle East, for oil. America depends on Latin American countries for cheap labor. America depends on China and Japan to finance the debt held by the federal government. America depends on other countries, mainly China, for many consumer products. Whenever someone depends on another, that person becomes his slave — and then the cycle falls back into bondage.
If my hypothesis is correct, then perhaps Americans are finally becoming emboldened to help themselves again. Perhaps the inspiration and hope surrounding President-elect Barack Obama is the modern version of spiritual faith. If this is true, then perhaps the United States will once again develop the courage to liberate itself.
Addendum: If you believe that this cycle is an accurate depiction of the life states of a country, where would Israel be located? (Or any other countries with which you are familiar?)
