{"id":230,"date":"2011-05-13T08:09:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T15:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/05-4\/wheat-from-the-chaff-the-decline-of-the-american-empire"},"modified":"2011-07-16T20:16:33","modified_gmt":"2011-07-17T03:16:33","slug":"wheat-from-the-chaff-the-decline-of-the-american-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/230","title":{"rendered":"The Decline of the American Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:30px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/230\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"recommend\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"blog\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogbody\">\n<p><span>A recurring media topic these days is the cultural, economic and political decline of the American Empire. It\u2019s reflected in a large number of books, blogs and mainstream news stories. My former professor, Morris Berman, writes a popular blog, <a href=\"http:\/\/morrisberman.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dark Ages America<\/a>, almost singularly devoted to the theme. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Perhaps you\u2019re skeptical? Well, if you remain doubtful, I\u2019ve come across a number of recent examples of this decline, including two from that increasingly important barometer (and archive) of American culture, YouTube. Let\u2019s proceed with the evidence\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Exhibit #1:<\/strong> In the land of torts, Gloria Allred has risen above the pack and become a well-known trial lawyer and media manipulator. She\u2019s also lost her mind. Witness the following press conference captured on YouTube, and consider the utterly inappropriate content given the two young girls who are flanking her. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/svXrAZKfX5k\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"450\" height=\"280\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Exhibit #2: <\/strong>American presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee <strong>[Note: On May 16, Huckabee withdrew from the presidential race.]<\/strong> thinks American teachers are too biased, so he&#8217;s created his own company called <a href=\"http:\/\/learnourhistory.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">learnourhistory.com<\/a>. Here is the website&#8217;s introduction:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><em>Welcome to Learn Our History, where kids discover history through entertaining animated videos! I co-founded this company to give children a fun, fresh way to learn about America\u2019s rich past and most influential people. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><em>Many of our schools and teachers today haven&#8217;t found ways to make history for kids fun. Instead, they\u2019re teaching with political bias that distorts facts for the sake of political correctness. As a result, our national pride and patriotism are in jeopardy. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><em>That&#8217;s what makes Learn Our History different. Your kids will love to learn American history as they watch our nation&#8217;s stories come to life right before their eyes! All the while, they\u2019ll build a strong sense of national pride and appreciation for America.<\/em> <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Now, watch one his company&#8217;s &#8220;inspiring&#8221; video promos on Ronald Reagan: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2e7ZZ2ENSJg\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"425\" height=\"349\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Not surprisingly, comments have been turned off for the YouTube site. As an educator, my only question is this: Do I use Huckabee\u2019s site first to teach irony, or do I move immediately to the topic of propaganda? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><strong>Exhibit #3: <\/strong>On a more serious note, Andy Kroll, a well-known writer for <em>Mother Jones<\/em> magazine, has written <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guernicamag.com\/blog\/2658\/andy_kroll_how_the_mceconomy_b\/\" target=\"_blank\">a chilling article<\/a> on the hollowing out of the American middle class. He documents the jobless and unequal recovery now being touted by the Democrats &#8211; minus the jobless and unequal part, of course \u2013 and the critical role that labour unions used to play as the foundation of the modern middle class. Here are two excerpts: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><em>&#8230; On April 19th [2011], McDonald\u2019s launched its first-ever national hiring day, signing up 62,000 new workers at stores throughout the country. For some context, that\u2019s more jobs created by one company in a single day than the net job creation of the entire U.S. economy in 2009. And if that boggles the mind, consider how many workers applied to local McDonald\u2019s franchises that day and left empty-handed: 938,000 of them. With a 6.2 percent acceptance rate in its spring hiring blitz, McDonald\u2019s was more selective than the Princeton, Stanford, or Yale University admission offices&#8230;. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><em>\u2026Bargaining-table clout is crucial for unions, since it directly affects the wages their members take home every month. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union workers pocket on average $200 more per week than their non-union counterparts, a 28 percent difference. The benefits of union representation are even greater for women and people of color: women in unions make 34 percent more than their non-unionized counterparts, and Latino workers nearly 51 percent more.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><em>In other words, at precisely the moment when middle-class workers need strong bargaining rights so they can fight to preserve a living wage in a barbell economy, unions around the country face the grim prospect of losing those rights\u2026.<\/em> <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Do I take any comfort in this decline of a superpower? Do I display <em>Schadenfreude<\/em>, the pleasure of witnessing the discomfort of others? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Yes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">But of course, it\u2019s self-defeating and just plain \u2018ol <em>bad karma<\/em>. As a Canadian, I know that America\u2019s decline almost certainly means our decline. But it\u2019s like a car wreck. Terrible. Awful. Irresistible. <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"posted\">Posted by <a href=\"mailto:cwelch@lexiconic.net\">Colin Welch<\/a> at 6:04 PM<br \/>\n<em>Edited on: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 5:44 PM<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; A recurring media topic these days is the cultural, economic and political decline of the American Empire. It\u2019s reflected in a large number of books, blogs and mainstream news stories. My former professor, Morris Berman, writes a popular blog, Dark Ages America, almost singularly devoted to the theme. Perhaps you\u2019re skeptical? Well, if you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,9,12,15],"tags":[39,56],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-politics","category-economic-issues","category-education","category-humour","category-modern-culture","tag-american","tag-empire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}