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Page added on April 27, 2016

Will The United States Collapse Due To An Internal Societal Meltdown?

Are we witnessing the beginning of the end for the United States of America? All great nations eventually fall, and the United States is not going to be any exception.

Many of those that write about the decline of our once great country tend to focus on external threats, and there are certainly many that could be talked about. But perhaps even more ominous is the internal societal meltdown that we see happening all around us. According to Real Clear Politics, recent surveys show that 67 percent of Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track, and only 26 percent of Americans believe that it is headed in the right direction. So even though we are tremendously divided as to what the solutions are, the vast majority of us can see that something is deeply, deeply wrong with America.

Personally, I spend a lot of time writing about our economic problems. We have piled up the largest mountain of debt in the history of the planet, last year the middle class became a minority for the first time in our history, and 47 percent of all Americans couldn’t even pay an unexpected $400 emergency room bill without borrowing the money or selling something. But I don’t want to focus on economics in this article.

Neither do I plan to focus on our political problems. The fact that somewhere around half the country plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in November shows just how far gone we are as a nation. And the Republican Party is essentially just a watered-down version of the Democrats at this point. On average, Congress has just a 14.5 percent approval rating, and yet we keep sending the same corrupt politicians back to Washington D.C. time after time.

What in the world is wrong with us?

Physically we are a giant mess too. According to USA Today, the obesity rate in the United States has more than doubled over the past 25 years, and the OECD has found that the U.S. has the most overweight population in the entire industrialized world by a wide margin.

But our physical problems are not going to be the focus of this article either.

Instead, I want to focus on what is going on inside our heads and inside our hearts. I want to focus on our mental, emotional and spiritual problems.

Alvin Conway of The Extinction Protocol has been chronicling global disasters for years, and he has just posted an insightful piece in which he comments on the growing social decay that we see all around us…

According to Covenant Eyes, an internet search group, 1 out of 5 mobile searches on the internet involves pornography. Illegal drugs continue to be both manufactured and transported into the U.S. with no apparent way of halting or stopping the flow. In the US alone, more than 15 million people abuse prescription drugs, more than the combined number of people who reportedly abuse cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin. If the war against drugs can’t be won, what luck will we ever have winning the war on terror? Does anyone remember who won Lyndon B. Johnson’s famed war on poverty? Regardless, let’s throw some more taxpayers’ money at an issues that money along can’t fix.

Later in his article, Conway goes on to link this social decay with the spiritual decline of our nation…

According to Pew Forum, the number of people who claim to be religious in America is declining as the country becomes more and more secular. “Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally massive Pew Research survey in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – has jumped more than six points, from 16.1% to 22.8%.” The U.S. is beginning to look more and more like ancient Rome before it collapsed.

I agree with Conway. America is starting to look more and more like the Roman Empire just before it collapsed.

A nation is only as strong as its population, and right now we are quite a disaster. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the suicide rate in the United States has spiked to the highest level in almost 30 years. The following is an excerpt from a Washington Post article entitled “U.S. suicide rate has risen sharply in the 21st century“…

The U.S. suicide rate has increased sharply since the turn of the century, led by an even greater rise among middle-aged white people, particularly women, according to federal data released Friday.

Last decade’s severe recession, more drug addiction, “gray divorce,” increased social isolation, and even the rise of the Internet and social media may have contributed to the growth in suicide, according to a variety of people who study the issue.

That same article goes on to say that the suicide rate in this country increased by a whopping 24 percent from 1999 to 2014.

Is that a sign of a healthy nation?

At this point things have gotten so bad that even 70 percent of our pastors are battling depression. The following was authored by respected journalist Jennifer LeClaire…

There is no lack of statistics about pastors and depression, burnout, health, low pay, spirituality, relationships and longevity—and none of them are good. According to the Schaeffer Institute, 70 percent of pastors constantly fight depression, and 71 percent are burned out. Meanwhile, 72 percent of pastors say they only study the Bible when they are preparing for sermons; 80 percent believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families; and 70 percent say they don’t have a close friend.

The Schaeffer Institute also reports that 80 percent of seminary and Bible school graduates will leave the ministry within five years.

We are a deeply, deeply unhappy nation, and we have been trained to turn to pills as the solution.

According to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 59 percent of all U.S. adults are on at least one prescription drug at this point, and 15 percent of all U.S. adults are on at least five prescription drugs.

Those are absolutely astounding numbers to me. We are the most drugged up nation on the face of the planet, and yet we just keep on getting less happy.

Here are some more selected numbers from a previous article that back up that claim…

–Back in 1987, 61.1 percent of all Americans reported being happy at work. Today, 52.3 percent of all Americans say that they are unhappy at work.

–A different survey found that 70 percent of all Americans do not “feel engaged or inspired at their jobs”.

–One survey of 50-year-old men in the U.S. found that only 12 percent of them said that they were “very happy”.

–The number of Americans diagnosed with depression increases by about 20 percent each year.

–According to the New York Times, more than 30 million Americans take antidepressants.

–Doctors in the United States write more than 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants each year.

–The rate of antidepressant use among middle aged women is far higher than for the population as a whole. It is hard to believe, but right now one out of every four women in their 40s and 50s is taking an antidepressant medication.

–Compared to children in Europe, children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants.

–In America today, there are 60 million people that abuse alcohol and there are 22 million people that use illegal drugs.

–America has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.

–America has the highest divorce rate in the world by a wide margin.

–America has the highest percentage of one person households on the entire planet.

–100 years ago, 4.52 people were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of 2.59 people.

We are more isolated, more lonely and more miserable than we have ever been before.

But does that mean that we are on the verge of collapsing as a nation?

Just like during the days of the Roman Empire, most Americans cannot even conceive of a time when America will be no more. And yet we can all see that the foundations are being constantly chipped away at.

Will we be able to survive once our foundations are totally gone?

Michael Snyder | End Of The American Dream

93 Comments on "Will The United States Collapse Due To An Internal Societal Meltdown?"

Apneaman on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 7:03 pm

Survivalist, we could see it anytime now.

Hooray for the Cancer!

Climate Change Drives Half a Billion People to Suffer Hunger, Water Shortages as Droughts and Heatwaves Wreck Crops Across the Globe

“A human-forced warming of the globe is a trigger for increasingly severe droughts, water shortages, food shortages, and heatwaves intense enough to cause mass casualties. As global temperatures during 2015 and 2016 have risen to more than 1 degree Celsius above preindustrial readings, we’ve seen more and more reports coming in of these kinds of climate-change driven disruptions.

A new study out this week from the European Commission has found that 240 million people across the world are now suffering from food stress. With Greenpeace now warning that 330 million people in India alone are faced with water shortages and threat of famine, and with millions more coming under both food and water stress in Vietnam as a record Southeast Asian heatwave ramps up to never-before-seen extreme temperatures — it appears now that more than half a billion people around the world are dealing with a climate change driven food and water crisis.

It’s a growing global crisis that has now come to affect more than 45 nations. One that has put at least 80 million of those now suffering from hunger at a food stress level just one step below famine. One whose primary trigger appears to be widespread and expanding drought and extreme weather due to global temperatures hitting new all-time record highs.”

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/04/27/climate-change-drives-half-a-billion-people-to-suffer-hunger-water-shortages-as-droughts-and-heatwaves-wreck-crops-across-the-globe/

makati1 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 7:03 pm

Azurean, have you forgotten that missiles exist?

Do you realize that Moscow is 15 minutes from San Francisco or Dc by missile?

Do you think that there will not be a world war 3 started by the dying empire as its last gasp attempt to survive?

The insane DC crowd are already planning on a first strike on Russia. Why do you think that Russia might not see that and do their own first strike? It could all be over in an hour and you may be in bed when it happens. You will wish you were vaporized if that does come to pass. I would.

makati1 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 7:05 pm

Those in degrees of denial are really separated out in the comments on this one. It brought a few out of the closet that I had not noticed previously. It has flipped to a new list as we reached the 50th comment, which makes it difficult to go back and check what was said by whom, but there is a lot of covert flag waving and techie dreaming and “BAU in some form” wishes involved. Reality is an unknown concept to most Americans. They prefer to blame the rest of the world for their problems. Perhaps none of them have noticed that the graph of the American collapse has reached the hockey stick part at the end? All of the negatives have gone ballistic. The positives, if any are left, have entered the final extinction stage.

Even the Titanic took time to sink, but the end was written by the iceberg’s gash in its side. Many Americans are still at the bar, drinking and ignoring the fact that America is sinking. The lower classes know what is coming because they live in the real world already and see the end but have little power to do anything about it. Of the total passengers and crew of the Titanic, only 30% survived. I doubt the US will be so lucky. There are no lifeboats for those on board and the sharks are circling already.

Plantagenet on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 7:08 pm

@Mak

I enjoy your posts but your claim that the insane DC crowd (and just who do you mean—i.e. the Obama administration?—the Bill and Hillary show?) is planning a first strike nuclear attack on Moscow strikes me as absurd.

Hillary is far more likely to push a big “resort” button then any kind of nuclear attack button.

Cheers!

Survivalist on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 7:13 pm

The last time food prices spiked it was mainly due to oil price spikes. Soon food prices will spike due to climate change induced crop failures and oil price spikes. Europeans will be surprised to discover that Iraq to Germany is ‘walking distance’. Americans will learn that Central America to Dallas Texas is also walking distance.

makati1 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 7:29 pm

Plant, I mean ALL of DC not just your favorite prompter reader. Hilary is not going to push the button. She is a shill for TPTB as are all presidents since at least Regan. THEY will push the button, if it happens. Elections are just for show.

Wolfie52 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 7:53 pm

Please Plant-troll, lose the “cheers” and the “skeleton” both are annoying. And really you DO NOT HAVE TO COMMENT on everything. Really, you don’t. Find a hobby.

I think the real problem is that some people have nothing else to do, but troll these sort of websites and their minds become warped. That in of itself becomes a mental health issue.

Davy on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 7:56 pm

“This Is The End: Venezuela Runs Out Of Money To Print New Money”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-27/end-venezuela-runs-out-money-print-new-money

“Venezuela, in other words, is now so broke that it may not have enough money to pay for its money.”

makati1 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 8:04 pm

Supporting evidence:

“The government has criminalized so many mundane activities that the average American unknowingly commits three felonies a day. That’s according to a study by Harry Silverglate, a civil liberties lawyer.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-27/worst-law-most-americans-have-never-heard

Glad I don’t live there. That law is why Americans cannot open a bank account here in the Ps. They don’t want to have to report everything to the US.

makati1 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 8:06 pm

Wolfie, some of us are retired and enjoy the banter and byplay of the site while contributing our long experience in this world. Lighten up and just don’t read any of the skeletons stuff if it annoys you. I skip most of it.

makati1 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 8:19 pm

and again:

“In the American police state, the price to be paid for speaking truth to power (also increasingly viewed as an act of treason) is surveillance, censorship, jail and ultimately death.

It’s a diabolically ingenious tactic for muzzling, disarming and ultimately eliminating one’s critics or potential adversaries.

However, where many Americans go wrong is in assuming that you have to be doing something illegal or challenging the government’s authority in order to be flagged as a suspicious character, labeled an enemy of the state and locked up like a dangerous criminal.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-26/censored-surveilled-watch-listed-jailed-absurd-citizenry-american-police-state

And the beat goes on…

Apneaman on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 8:25 pm

Hail the maintainers
Capitalism excels at innovation but is failing at maintenance, and for most lives it is maintenance that matters more

“Inovation is a dominant ideology of our era, embraced in America by Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and the Washington DC political elite. As the pursuit of innovation has inspired technologists and capitalists, it has also provoked critics who suspect that the peddlers of innovation radically overvalue innovation. What happens after innovation, they argue, is more important. Maintenance and repair, the building of infrastructures, the mundane labour that goes into sustaining functioning and efficient infrastructures, simply has more impact on people’s daily lives than the vast majority of technological innovations.”

https://aeon.co/essays/innovation-is-overvalued-maintenance-often-matters-more

makati1 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 8:36 pm

And yet again:

“A group of 51 middle schoolers from North Carolina traveled all the way to the 9/11 memorial and decided to sing the national anthem.

They were stopped — from singing the national anthem at the 9/11 memorial — halfway through by 9/11 memorial security because, well, it seems they didn’t have the proper permit.”

http://www.shtfplan.com/conspiracy-fact-and-theory/school-shushed-for-singing-anthem-at-911-memorial-obey-authority-even-if-we-dont-understand-it_04272016

Freedom in America is dead.

Rob on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 8:50 pm

I’m keeping it real. Making sure I stay on the down low.

Boat on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 9:12 pm

ape,

Capitalism weeds out cost/maintenance over time. Mom & pop stores give way to box stores. Box stores will give way to online etc.

Apneaman on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 9:52 pm

If you say so boat. Your in-depth analysis has yet to be equalled.

Boat on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 10:26 pm

ape,

If you run a business you learn these things.

makati1 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 10:53 pm

Boat, box stores will give way to Mom and Pop stores. Have you noticed the decline in Amazon?

makati1 on Wed, 27th Apr 2016 10:53 pm

The ability to buy on line is about over. As is the internet for the serfs. Wait and see.

Apneaman on Thu, 28th Apr 2016 12:12 am

Boat, your ability to explain highly complex issues with such an economy of words is unique in the annals of economic history. You should be getting a call from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences any day now.

peakyeast on Thu, 28th Apr 2016 3:54 am

@EVERYBODY: As most commenters has notice: When the amount of comments exceed 50/100 and so forth the first comments disappear since there is no button to press to select page.

However, if you look at the URL (the adress at the top of the browser) you can notice the it contains /comment-page-2#…

If you revise the number to “page-1” then you can read the old comments again.

makati1 on Thu, 28th Apr 2016 4:40 am

Thanks Peaky. For PC illiterates like me, that is a big help.

peakyeast on Thu, 28th Apr 2016 5:19 am

You are very welcome, dear Makati. I am happy that I could be of service to you.

theedrich on Thu, 28th Apr 2016 5:39 am

The banshee will win in November. Why? Because, at bottom, the American population is, and always has been, oedipal, and a people is ruled by the leaders it deserves. It is just that nowadays the progression of this pathology is reaching unforeseen extremes and driving Whites to genosuicide. And yes, the atrophying concept of “God” has much to do with it. This is ultimately because, as Nietzsche pointed out over a century ago, the truth that Christianity had always claimed to champion has exposed the falsity of that religion’s premisses.

To begin with, the founding (“charter”) myths — of the Garden of Eden, of the “Exodus” (in which it was not the Israelites who left Egypt, but in fact the imperial Egyptians who left Canaan), of Jerusalem as the capital of the world, of Jesus as the Savior of all mankind (when he is actually the unconscious archetype of the self), and of the “adventure story” of the Book of Acts — are known by all serious biblical scholars to be fabrications and misinterpretations, completely false. This knowledge of the academics has filtered down to all the preachers and priests except the most ignorant fundamentalists, to whom truth is irrelevant. So the faith is not merely not being kept; it is lost altogether.

The facts about God (a name first found in the Visigothic translation of the Bible about A.D. 350, as guþ in the nominative, stem guð- in the oblique cases) should be made clearer. Originally, this word was neuter, not masculine, but was forced into masculine gender by slavishly translating from the Greek theos (and Latin deus). Originally it came from a root meaning “that [paranormal power] which is chanted up” among the shamanistic societies of the pre-Christian Germanic (and other circumpolar) peoples. “Woðan” (Wotan, Odin, etc.) originally meant something like “supernatural being who leads those who are demonically possessed” or, more freely, “leader of shamans”.

Today, those who have studied the issue of the paranormal philosophically have learnt from Ernst Haeckel, Rupert Sheldrake and Ian Stevenson, that there is a cosmic subconscious, or inframind, whose effects are seen through the nature of memory and the “eureka” effect, plus other “strange” phenomena. What is sometimes called “reincarnation” is simply the instantiation of pre-existing memories laid down by previous forms of life, of crystals, of electrons, etc. It is impossible here to go into any extensive proof for this, or to answer those who use the argumentum ad auctoritatem and say that group-thinking “scientists,” anxious about losing their government funding or collegial prestige, do not believe the facts of this deep, underlying power, which are witnessed in manifold ways by all mankind all of the time.

Suffice it to say that this different concept of God has nothing to do with the wishdream of a “divine father.” While this infinite Mind produces all of the “accidents” which are responsible for our Goldilocks existence, and has an inherent thrust toward life culminating in intelligence, the most intense form of life, it is not the cuddly Santa-Claus-type divinity that most people learn about as young children, when they finish their religious education, never to go any further. Such childish beliefs are one reason why so many educated people abandon the concept of God altogether.

The laws of nature and nature’s God (cf. the Declaration of Independence) are learnt from cosmology, from evolution and from history. The Ten Commandments may be viewed as a condensed extraction of the lessons of this course of education. There are other lessons to be taken from it, too. But the idea that human beings can take portions of the Bible (or other human writing) and use feel-good nuggets from it as the cornerstones of modern political policies (such as allowing unlimited illegal immigration) is madness.

We note that none of the current candidates running for the U.S. presidency except Trump has said anything about the metastasizing narcotics plague now killing thousands of people a year. The banshee wants to “build bridges” to the narcotics cartels, since that will expand the demographic base of her Demonic Party. Given her rhetoric, so appealing to the increasingly religiously anchorless, oedipal masses with their fantasies about heaven on earth, it is virtually certain that she will win in November. And not only the U.S., but Western civilization as a whole will sink into a slobbering sewer of semi-humans demanding ever more freebies, the final result being the death of the White race and the civilization to which it gave rise.

Kenz300 on Thu, 28th Apr 2016 7:16 am

What do RepubliCONS believe…….. depends who is paying….. follow the money……. fossil fuels….. oil, coal natural gas…, nuclear, NRA………the top 1%

Are RepubliCONS the real EVIL DOERS………..they want to end Social Security, Medicare and access to contraception…….