Breaking the Code of History - The Decline and Fall of the US

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In his new book, "Breaking the Code of History", David Murrin (CEO of Emergent Asset Management) argues that the US faces a rapid decline based on a "big picture" view of history. We have had our run, and we are done:



I have always felt that the rise of the US over the last 200 years has been the result of a self-selection process: People came to the US because they were the kind of folks who believed in risk-taking and self-sufficiency -- and they produced enormous progress and enormously better living conditions for everyone than what had previously been seen in the entire history of the planet.

The whole "westering" of civilization since the discovery of the New World in 1492 provided an evolutionary selection process favoring people who didn't fit into rigid societies, who didn't like cities, who wanted the open air, who weren't afraid to take risks, and who didn't like government and religious control. They wanted freedom.  And we are their inheritors.

Whether individualism is a genetic trait or not, the individualism of Americans has recently been declining. Since the end of WWII, generation by generation, it has been going away.   I believe that part of this is due to the the amount of comfort that we have been able to achieve, but there are other reasons too.  A lot of people hate America because of its dominance and success.  They want it destroyed, along with the philosophies of freedom and individualism that created it.

Whether or not Obama was actually born in the US has been questioned, but his ideas are foreign regardless.  The election of Obama is the latest step in the harmonization of America to be more like the rest of the world.  And make no mistake, America is not like the rest of the world.  Our belief in individual freedom puts us into conflict with even our allies.  We should not gauge ourselves on their beliefs, or seek to replace our beliefs with theirs.

But now, the people of the United States want to be fed, housed, clothed, and generally be taken care of.  With Obama, they are promised safety and care at the price of freedom and more taxes. Most people in the US seem like that trade. Unlike their ancestors, they don't mind being controlled.

I note that the people who voted for Obama are mostly from areas of the country with large populations -- plus areas of the gentrified rich (rural areas where city folk go to retire), and areas where poor and special interest groups live (since he promised them more money). The cities are places where the original American westering types do not live. When you think about it, in the 1800s as the line of population moved west, these folks moved further west, until they ran out of room.

If you look at rural America, where people still see the open sky, Obama lost. Indeed, when tallied by area, Obama lost in a landslide. He is really only a president of the densely populated cities of America -- the places our forefathers fled from.

I believe that history will show that America peaked in the late 20th century. Militarily, we peaked in World War II, and again in the 1980s. Technologically, we were strong from 1950 through 2000. Sociologically, we peaked in the 1950's and early 1960's. But the only peak that will be remembered hundreds of years from now will be the moon landing in 1969.  It has been all downhill since.

I find it fascinating that the latest census advertisements are encouraging you to "be counted" so that your town can get "your fair share" of money from the government. Without a census, we evidently won't know how big a hospital to build.  In the future, I suppose, we also won't know how many grocery stores the government should build for us.  Or housing units. Or how much food and clothing our town will be allowed.





Well, I don't think the federal government should provide any money to our communities for anything.  Your fair share should be zero.  This is all another one of William Blake's "minute particulars" that "predicts the ruin of the state."

The new health care law will fail of course.  It is designed to fail so that Obama can roll out a plan for full government-provided health care.  He said as much yesterday in Iowa:

But what this is, is a historic step....It doesn't do everything that everybody wants, but it moves us in the direction of universal health care coverage in this country and that's why everybody here fought so hard for it.

Again I ask, "If Obama were trying his hardest to destroy our country, what would he be doing differently?"  The answer, of course, is "nothing".

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