Stark said:
mmissinglink said:
The Chinese empire has survived and thrived for more than 2000 years through almost every hell imaginable. The American empire is not even 240 years old. To say that every empire has fallen says very little actually. Sure, nothing is forever, but that's a far cry from what the doomsdayers have been screaming probably for decades in the U.S.
I'm not saying that they are all screaming the same thing nor that they are all necessarily wrong, just that they are screaming pure emotional conjecture from what I've seen thus far.
That's true. But there is also huge difference between today's China and China back then. I doubt it can be said that this is "same" empire since beginning. As well as nobody can say that today's Italy is successor of Roman Empire or Greece of old state.
Eastern Roman Empire survived longer than Western part but it fall in the end as well.
Persian Empire
The "transition" of power is going slowly. I would probably agree that Asia got the most from globalization.
Also, US and EU are "jumping" from one war into other, spending a lot of money and killing many people. China and Russia (except South Ossetia) are practically gaining its power and influence without shooting a single bullet.
I agree with your last statement but disagree with your first assertion. China today is basically the same China it was just after Qin Shi Huang in around 221 BC unified the 7 kingdoms. The Empire of the Sun is still strong and lives on. If you are arguing that because the politics have changed, the geographical borders have changed somewhat, and that they have industrialized and such things, then you would have to argue that the US of the 19th century has also nothing in common with the US today...which in my view isn't a truthful assessment of how, while nations may change the empire that they have established is not dead.
In the year 2276, some 262 years from today, at the tender young empire age of 500, the American empire may still not have ever seen the total destructive meltdown that today's doomsdayers are painting the picture of. I don't know either way, I possess no supernatural crystal ball. All I'm saying is that for those in control of the big money decisions here in the US, there's no rush for them...they don't run around like the scurrying doomsday prepping mice in the maze. Their time frame of significant events is vastly different I think and it's because of this reason that I believe that the impending doomsday scenario is more fear based than anything else.
Is is smart to pay attention and have a hand crank or solar powered radio, extra batteries, some gasoline, potable drinking water, a small amount of non-perishable canned or freeze dried foods at home? Sure. But these guys who have storage sheds and bunkers filled with these things are wasting lots of unnecessary time, money, and emotion on what amounts to unfounded fear I believe.
I own a 3 gallon emergency gravity feed water filter. It didn't cost a month's salary, doesn't take up much room, and if the whole shit doesn't turn into hell over the next 5 years, it's no big deal at all.
One doomsdayer whose blog I was reading months ago was suggesting that other like minded people consider going to small, off the beaten path cemeteries to dig up corpses for the purpose of extracting any silver fillings. Silver he argued, will become invaluable in a few months when the shit hits the fan. It's this and similar sorts of thinking by doomsdayers that troubles me the most.
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