I hope nobody took me to mean that I imagine the States, specifically and uniquely, to be in terminal decline out on their own; I know very little, first-hand, about the country, but I obviously do know something about the UK and the northern region in particular. In my view, it has already missed the boat to the future, both because of the decline in indigenous population, but perhaps even more due to its mindset: rabid left.
As I see it, all those battles were decided generations ago - at the latest by the end of WW2. But what happened? As with the rest of the country, civil liberties were extended to include the liberty to self-destruct. Led by men who were power hungry, fairly dumb but eloquent enough rabble-rousers, the country was led into destroying its own industrial base. Too late, we produced a single politician, a women but the best man of them all, who fought a great battle against the tide with the same result as olde Canute: took a bath. Perhaps, had she had some loyalty from her officers, she might have turned that tide after all, but self-interest, ego and pride led them to revolution and eventual consignment to the scrap heap for a seriously long period of time, a period long enough to allow the new power the time for the betrayal of the national good, the loss of lives in a falsely started war and, also, the building up of a lowest common denominator block so large that it would seem almost impossible to outvote it. When you develop an enormous dependency subculture, how in heaven do you get it to start thinking? Thinking, in the direction of positive change.
No wonder I live somewhere very else; but nothing remains safe - change here is also accelerating and island unemployment of over 60% gives rise to doubts of a peaceful future...
But we still have photography!
Rob C