<p>Pandem: Why would you think the current state of affairs is likely to persist? Only the foolish take the way things are for the way things will be.</p>
<p>As an aside, I don’t think democracy is an effective or admirable form of government, particularly when (as in our own) its leaders are not those trained to lead but rather those trained to politick.</p>
<p>^Do we need people “trained to lead?” I’d prefer people willing to take risks.</p>
<p>Reading comprehension. Get some. Nowhere did I say “the current state of affairs is likely to persist.” </p>
<p>If you seriously think the United States will be anything less than a superpower (as opposed to its current ultra-power status), you’re delusional. The world isn’t going to end from corrupt politicians, and the single most dominant country on the planet isn’t going to be ruined because a NYTimes blogger says so.</p>
<p>“In fact, those idiots are thinking about legalizing pot over there in CA. LEGALIZING POT.”</p>
<p>the horror</p>
<p>^Yes, indeed. The country would burn to ashes in an instant.</p>
<p>RE: ksarmand</p>
<p>Wouldn’t a leader take risks?</p>
<p>When I say “trained” I don’t mean instructed in some sort of school. And I certainly don’t mean “trained” by being the president of student government or other absurd extracurricular club. Today we quickly equate any use of words like “education,” “teaching,” or “training” to mean institutional schooling, an unfortunate result of our seeing learning merely as an activity one must engage in order to acquire the skills necessary to earn money, as a means rather than an end.</p>
<p>When I say those “trained to lead” I mean those who have cultivated in themselves the personal qualities necessary for leadership - i.e. self-assurance, decisiveness, the willingness to soberly confront hard truths [this in particularly is lacking in politicians], and so on and so forth. As you can see these qualities are all ethical/moral traits. Integrity. This is fundamental to a leader, and it’s a foundation that our own leaders, not only in politics, utterly lack. I see this as a structural flaw: we have a society built upon the greed and the glorification of image over substance. Spectacle has replaced reality. </p>
<p>I’ll stop now as it’s impossible to get into any of the nitty-gritty detail and historical analysis that would make this any more than the useless polemic of a frustrated idealist.</p>
<p>I will recommend reading Giambattista Vico and Oswald Spengler as a parting shot.</p>
<p>Oh and pandem, you’re boring. I don’t care what some times blogger says and my own thoughts have nothing to do with whatever he said (I didn’t read the article).</p>
<p>Watch out folks, we’ve got an “intellectual” on our hands! He refuses to answer the actual arguments and instead respond with verbose diatribes!</p>
<p>Get over yourself. It’s an internet forum argument, and so far, you’re losing. No need to get all wordy and mightier-than-thou. I’m willing to bet any money you’re a teenage kid who knows absolutely everything.</p>
<p>Over-the-top “ur stupid” response coming in 3…2…1</p>
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<p>Considering that this is the “College Life” forum, you’re probably not too far off in terms of age.</p>
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<p>Leave it to a NYTimes op-ed columnist to mock budgetary concerns as a reason for not pursuing every social agenda on the list. </p>
<p>Because, of course, it can’t be true that some of us DO want a better tomorrow but wouldn’t mind allocating funding for these projects today–instead of leaving the economy to implicitly tax all of us at an equal rate later on. Last I heard the liberals wanted to help the working class, not hurt them.</p>
<p>Well, Roman Empire took 1000 years to fall, and when it fell, it was still a super powerful state called Byzantine Empire. The point being, the turks had grown more powerful; now, the Chinese and the Indians are catching up.
The problem being: who is going to be the most powerful and whose ass are those powerful countries gona kick? </p>
<p>America is not just gona evaporate from this planet, but its status will, sometimes, it takes hundred of years to recover a single mistake, because opportunity comes and goes; unfortunately, we’ve missed a lot of them.</p>
<p>Guys, as long as we got that $$$$$, we are golden. Why was America able to maintain such kill ratios in WW2 and subsequent wars? (1 US marine casualty for every 25+ Japanese Marine casualty)</p>
<p>Because we had superior arms, supplies, and training programs. No matter how hard you train, without proper equipment (such as sandbags other obstacle courses or watever), you will be crushed.</p>
<p>And whats with the “thinking about the nation?” In most instances, Self Interest helps the nation. Sure you may say the greed craze helped spark the great recession. It also set off decades of growth. Hmmm 20 years of boon in exchange for 18 months of bane and people scream that the sky is falling down. In addition, the stock markets have largely rebounded from the lows: Dow is above 10000. </p>
<p>America is still the most power nation on the Earth and the Euro Crisis reinforces that. While America acted in a consolidated manner (even with the partisan deadlock in congress) to respond to recent crises while Europe could not; its on the edge of falling apart. As for China, its growth will not last forever and its GDP per capita is still disgustingly low. America still owns Coca Cola, Yum Foods, Pepsi, McDonalds, and the Wall Street Banks. Those are world wide symbols.</p>
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The battle wasn’t on our turf. If anything, we were on the Pacific …</p>
<p>Well to get back to the actual topic… A few people have said it already but the generation in college right now will not be the majority of government for another two decade or so. However I do think there will be many significant changes to our government structure when this generation does start to make an impact. </p>
<p>There has been some interesting academic research going on about questions like “why are young generations are so politically lazy?” What people are finding is that young Americans are not necessarily lazy, we just don’t value the same things that older generations. For example older generations value voting where as younger generations value volunteering much more.</p>