quote: Spengler borrows frequently from mathematical philosophy. He holds that the mathematics and art of a civilization reveal its world-view. He notes that in Greek classical mathematics that there are only integers and no real concepts of limits or infinity. Therefore, without a concept of the infinite, all events of the distant past were viewed as equally distant, thus Alexander the Great had no problem declaring himself a descendant of a god. On the other hand, the western world—which has concepts of the zero, the infinite, and the limit—has a historical world-view which places a high amount of importance on exact dates.
I'm trying to comb through wikipedia on any articles about the decline of American power and i stumbled upon this book and as such this paragraph and I must say it really intrigued me, it makes sense.
IP: Logged |
posted
In the context of your target subject matter, that makes no sense to me. Would you care to elaborate greatly? As an aside, I really don't think American power is declining as such, unless you mean relatively. We're not any weaker than we were in the 50's comparatively. I'd say until 2003, we were probably considerably stronger than then even. Even now we're poised to make a big leap into the next generation of technology militarily. The difference is that many other nations are racing to catch up with us in ways that only the USSR has even attempted in the last 50 years. Iraq has made us weaker, yes, but I wouldn't put it out of the regular ebb and flow of power that any nation has. We've yet to not rebuild after a major conflict in the last 60 years. But power becomes relative when many other nations share the same level of power. So are we weaker? Meh, not really. But is the difference in power between us and other countries narrowing? Yes, because they're catching up, not because we're falling behind.
And I'm okay with that for the most part. I guess it'd depend on the specific question.
I'm not so good on German, what does the thread title mean? The Downfall of the Americans?
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
A reference to being in the West perhaps, as in the 'land of the evening/sunset'?
Posts: 892 | Registered: Oct 2006
| IP: Logged |
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
The paragraph in question has nothing to do, it is just something I stumbled upon and find interesting.
As for the argument about the relative decline of American power I find Paul Kennedy's work "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" best explains this; While his book was written in 1986 I found that based upon current events and the US's economic situation its argument is valid. Basically while the USA is on say several orders of magnitude more powerful then it was in say 1950 its relative power in the world in nearly every category has shrunk considerably. It has huge defence commitments that would have made British strategic planners in 1911 grow pale and it can no longer afford and is suffering from what could be readily described as Imperial overstretch.
I don't believe Iraq is any more the cause then say the collapse of the housing market but it will make the decline far more prominent and possible accelerates it. The decline of American power on the world stage is nearly identical to the situation the former British Empire found itself in; large and over extended military commitments, rising military costs, a geopolitical position that's being challenged by a more multipolar world and being challenged by nations that could only be described as rising economic titans.
America's share of manufacturing which in 1950 consisted of the lions share of the worlds manufacturing (which Britain also once possessed in the 1800's) now has shrunk considerably as well as others 'catching up' other countries don't just catchup ground has to be given up somewhere and at disjointed rates. Which also applies to your intended comment on the relative military power of the Great Powers ones military power has to slow down first for it to become apparent that others are catching up.
IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
