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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Life is Going to Change as America Collapses
Good, and frightening read because we are already well on our way...
How Life is Going to Change as America Collapses
What Will Everyday Life in a Collapsed America Be Like?
Umair Haque
Jul 10, 2018
Indulge me for a moment. Imagine, as I do, that Americas going to go right on collapsing. Whos going to stop it? After all, in the last week alone, all three branches of government have been captured, at last, by extremists. The judiciary, with the nomination of a justice whod overturn Roe vs Wade, taking the US back half a century. Congress, whose Senators happily tweeted independence day greetings from Moscow. And, of course, the executive, in which a demagogue continued his assault on reason, democracy and truth.
All three branches of government captured mean that there are virtually no checks and balances left, save slender hope here or there, and so American collapse is likely to continue unabated. Into what? Into well, no one knows. Theofascism, maybe. Klepto-authoritarianism, perhaps. Pick your poisons now shake up the cocktail mixer. Something new, a new form of all the old diseases of the body politic, combined in a strange, novel, lethal way, most probably.
While we cant say what the final form of American collapse will be yet, we can say life is going to change. Faster, harder, and nastier than you think. Here are five ways life is going to change under authoritarianism and youd be quite correct to notice, as you read, that they are ways in which life has already begun to change.
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https://eand.co/five-ways-life-is-going-to-change-for-americans-under-authoritarianism-f655f0cb89af
Read all five ways at the link
Karma13612
(4,552 posts)lostnfound
(16,180 posts)Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)leftstreet
(36,108 posts)America isn't going to "collapse." The working classes will go on working, teaching, nursing, drywalling, caring for the elderly, housekeeping, house building, doctoring, etc
The 3 alleged branches of Government are what's collapsing
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)I would say that those are cautions rather than actual predictions of an outcome.
We really don't want any of that, do we? Perhaps we have come to far to allow things to get that bad again? That's really the question. How far will a Trump-style Fascism continue to overrun and degrade our democracy before we push back hard on it?
While it may slowly go that way, it does not have to. In fact, we have to heed warnings like that and remember that we are democracy and it is always our response that still makes a difference here. It is also possible that we, as the sleeping giant, can tend to ignore the ominous signs that are cropping up, but when it becomes unavoidably clear that it cannot continue that way, that is when we will know how this goes. It is then that we can say if there will be a collective action to resist tyranny or not.
While there is a point, as I understand it, where there is a finality to our democracy, we should start to consider that as a potential now in order to share the gravity of what we are up against and admit that serious vigilance and proactive responses have to be shouldered by those of us who know that the loss may be for keeps if we allow authoritarian tyranny to overshadow our land and despoil this democracy. We ARE democracy and we must keep that in mind. This is going to be about the common will and the common good as brought about and supported by us all, not something abstract out there.
So, let's prevent those scenarios from being made real. We have time to build our courage and support each other and anything that is working to preserve freedom and the will of the people. I value Orwell's 1984 in the same sense because it is an excellent warning of what we can lose. Nihilistic fatalism will only seal the deal. Determination is very important here. We are not defeatists, nor will we be to the very end.
icymist
(15,888 posts)He lost me when he said we would have to lick our masters boots with enthusiasm to live a decent life. Do you really think Americans will bow to this without a fight? I don't. As Yogi Berra once said, "It 'aint over until it's over".
Zolorp
(1,115 posts)HE isn't suggesting things can't turn around, he's laying out what happens when you don't turn it around.
icymist
(15,888 posts)eom
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)hunter
(38,317 posts)They know their lives suck in some way they can't quite explain, but they still voted for Trump, and they still celebrate the system that's oppressing them.
Hekate
(90,714 posts)Any solutions in sight?
Zolorp
(1,115 posts)Best solution I can see.
Vivienne235729
(3,384 posts)My senate race (that I have adopted) is the Martha mcsally seat. She is NOT liked and Mark Kelly has a very good chance of beating her. He is currently up by 4pts and has outpaced her in financing. I am super excited for this race to turn AZ blue. I have been waiting 20 yrs for this. And we are so close.
bdamomma
(63,868 posts)to stop this at all costs, we are talking about our survival.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I dont believe it will happen though, but its interesting to think of what might be. I have too much faith in humanity. And I think our country is way too large and diverse for a total dystopia or a dictatorship.
We would simply fall apart as one country with many states. We would become many countries instead, and each one could be very different. No dictator would be able to suppress everyone in this land, even with the military. How do you suppress 350 million people? The land area of the entire United States is 3,531,905 square miles. Especially when each state has its own National Guard. What can a wannabe dictator do about that. And why would he want to go to the bother of having to deal with managing a broken country?
The fact is we dont need the federal government in order to survive. Sure life would change a lot but democracy could easily continue in some of the states, or large cities. It would be harsh, but we would be free of a dictatorship.
Its interesting to read and think about those things but if we see it happening we can still do things about it.
raccoon
(31,111 posts)Or Stalins Russia suppressed?
lunatica
(53,410 posts)of farming peasants, and Russia had never experienced Democracy. Life probably changed very little from having a Czar to having Stalin in power. Stalin basically cut off the head of the intelligentsia and the military and was able to do it out of sight of the general population. The peasants were kept in the dark and ignored. They just followed along.
Although Germany had a Democracy which a Hitler destroyed, after WWI the other nations chose to punish Germany and it went through severe economic troubles. Hitler sold himself as their savior and improved their economy and their self esteem so he was able to unite Germans against the rest of the world for this reason. He also worked in the dark to consolidate power.
At present the world is a completely different place with access to social media where information travels very quickly and which is impossible to control for any wannabe dictators. Americans are also very aware of their Democratically based freedoms. Free speech, legal ownership of weapons, individual rights are all widely practiced. Weve never known oppression or a different kind of life. We do not accept being ruled.
Sure, there are things that are similar, but there are more things that arent and those things are pivotal. It will never be as easy for any dictator to take over. Can one do it? Maybe. I just dont think it can happen. At least not in the most populated blue states or in large blue Cities.
caraher
(6,278 posts)The collapse of our governmental institutions, at the federal level, has proceeded at a rate consistent with the "gloom and doom" in this article. We've heard it claimed, on the Senate floor, that nothing the President does should be prohibited if he imagines it in the best interest of the nation, and the party clinging to a majority there (through electoral chicanery) dared not even hear evidence in the sham trial of their leader.
Nov. 3, 2020 will indeed be an important date. It could be the point of no return.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)and I'll wait until we're actually defeated before I go into defeatist mode...
roamer65
(36,745 posts)I spell it S-E-C-E-D-E.
If he steals the election, its time to go.