America : Most dysfunctional "Democracy"

[the caracal kid]

and i never refer to america as an empire. i don't refer to the decline as something that suddenly occurs because a texan shrub become president. I see it as a part of the cycle of the system, and all societies have displayed the same major parts of that lifecycle (unique to its own conditions). I know you are thinking that this is the "sudden fall" scenario often played out, but i am not talking about a collapse within our lifetimes, but that the roots of change (which means the collapse of the current system) are already beginning. As i said though, it is not unique to the US, and for the comparisons to rome to be accurate the US would not need to become an empire (moving from republic to empire is a matter of semantics, it is the actual deep happenings that matter)

rome is a good example for comparison, but perhaps it would be best to look at the patterns of the rise and fall of all societies to better see what is happening in america?

edit:
the adoption of christianity as the state religion (or should i say the creation of it by the council of constinople?) was a major factor in the fall of the empire, yet christianity has been in america since its beginning so we can't use the creation/adoption/enforcement of religion as a symptom of decline in the US currently. This is an example of how the superficial is not what we need to use in making these comparisons.

 

[I think not]

I see what you are saying now. History is repleat with countries "passing the torch" so to speak. The US cannnot sustain itself as a world power forever, that is a foregone conclusion, the problem lies with the beginning, when exactly did this US world power begin? I personally place it right after WWII as a very slow beginning, it picked up pace in the late 80's. If you use history as a rule, the US has barely begun.

This same book was written in the 80's when Japan was going to "swallow up" America and spit it out before we even knew what was going on. Today they call it China. And it could very well be China, maybe in 10, 20, 50 years? Who's to say?

 

[jimmoyer]

Back to the beautiful dysfunctional democracy
we all complain about !

We intelligent people are just as guilty as the
ignorant people we denigrate.

We all complain, bicker incessantly, don't we ?

Not even the so-called intelligent people agree,
do they ?

We are in a habit -----A bad habit of repeating the same lines of thought, and none of us are immune to the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times.

Perhaps the beauty of a dysfunctional democracy
forces us to give up the incessant battle with others
and forces us to look to ourselves and what we
can do on our own.

All the issues fought by the partisans are the
most important of all and all demand our attention,
and all compete for the same resoures of time,
energy and money.

If only we did this or if only we did that !

The struggle is the truth, not the answers.

The process is educational.

John McCain has a theory about democracy right
along these lines. The idea of his is that we
must always tinker, improvise and adjust and even
though I disagreed with his campaign finance reform,
I found intriguing that his best argument for it is
that we must change the rules every 10 or 20 years
to adjust to unintended consequences, unforsee-able
reactions.

In my view the hardest lesson of a bickering democracy
is NOT TO CONTROL WHAT OTHERS DO, but rather to
focus on our own hypocrisies, our own foibles and
to think more about improving our own selves.

I put little credibility on denigrating the so-called
ignorant public, nor on denigrating the news media,
nor on denigrating the politicians and leaders,
but I put most credibility on focusing the burden
of responsibilty on ourselves, we voyeurs of the news.

We so-called intelligent people are no better than
who we condemn.

If we put ourselves in others shoes, we might find out
how difficult the jobs of others are.

We have become movie critics, not producers of
our own movies.

 

[gavrila]

America is 'the most dysfunctional' democracy

Great post, Ocean Breeze.

I would suggest that American is a "Corporatocracy" - In America, there is a great deal of convergence between corporate and governmental power. Such is clear, particularly in the case of Iraq, when corporate agendas have become the state's agenda.

--
American Flag Toilet Paper: http://www.freedumbusa.ca

 

[Curiosity]

Even the title of the dreamy essay from Common Dreams is dysfunctional....

America is not a country. America is actually a continent and to get even more nitpicky - there are divisions of this continent into North, Central and South. Thought we all knew our geography from grade school. Bang on it goes downhill from there....

If one is going to make a statement having validity and educational impact, one should at least provide the correct "entity" for criticism.

Sloppy research but it makes an interesting topic. But it has been done rhetorically before and before then and before then as well, even before internet forums held their audiences rapt.

 

[gd]

I think the claim forms as much as anything because the USA goes around claiming it is the greatest all the time, even though it has problems like everyone other country.

 

[jimmoyer]

gd, you might be right about the American brag.

But instead, I prefer to take issue with that Santa hat
guy holding a gun in your capitalism avatar.

First off, that's a great unkindness to Santa and I've
been a fan of Santa Clause ever since I got in a fight
in First Grade over some mouthy kid preaching there's
no such thing as Santa Claus. Now, I did have an inkling
he might have been right, but I knew he had no
respect for others saying it in such a nasty way.

Let's leave Santa Clause out of this dirty soiled
hypocritical world and let him live in purity and all
that we hold precious when we see the twinkle in
someone's eye.

 

[Dreamdefender7]

I agree that America is very dysfunctional. It is not a "democracy" at all but more of a police state.

The divide among the people is as great as it was in the post civil war times. I often wonder what is on the minds of this adminstration, to think they can foster peace elsewhere when they don't have a handle on their own efforts at peace here.

It is a sad thing that the love of power and money has absolutely taken over any remmants of common decency.

I strongly disagree with the reports that say this society is dysfunctional because of religion. I think it is a LACK of spirituality that has caused the dysfunction. When man gets to the point where he believes he's the greatest and removes the possiblity of God ... we are doomed to follow the laws of man...which as all of you know... are corruptable. Just look at the White House! Not to mention Britian's Issues.

The world is indeed in grave danger.

Albert Einstein said, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

 

[ElPolaco]

"Police state" I think is a bit strong Dream. The capability is obviously there, but there is no need of using it. Public opinion can be too easily manipulated by way of all the typical instruments of socialization and dissent can be too easily peripheralized. There is no need of any direct cohersion of any kind