Los Angeles is at the leading edge of a U.S. demographic trend, with half of its workforce immigrants, many of them unskilled and speaking little English.
As baby boomers retire, the same pattern will emerge across the country, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Demographers estimate that by 2025 most of the growth in the workforce will be from immigrants.
Suppose that in some ways the decline of
Or, are we instead looking at the end of the Republic and waiting for an Augustus to usher in a new society?
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"According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions because of a loss of civic virtue among its citizens.[4] They had become weak, outsourcing their duties to defend their Empire to barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were able to take over the Empire. Romans, he believed, had become effeminate, unwilling to live a tougher, "manly" military lifestyle. In addition, Gibbon argued that Christianity created a belief that a better life existed after death, which fostered an indifference to the present among Roman citizens, thus sapping their desire to sacrifice for the Empire. He also believed its comparative pacifism tended to hamper the traditional Roman martial spirit. Lastly, like other Enlightenment thinkers, Gibbon held in contempt the Middle Ages as a priest-ridden, superstitious, dark age. It was not until his own age of reason and rational thought, it was believed, that human history could resume its progress." FROM WIKIPEDIA 'DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE BY GIBBON'
It can hardly be said that Christianity was not martial in spirit e.g eight crusades. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church can rightly take credit for stopping the spread of Islam into Europe for centuries--until now. Look what happens when Europe abandons the faith--Moslems have flooded in with a new "invasion".
The same might be said of the United States with our continued abandoning of Christianity. We are the poorer culturally by far with values that focus between the knees and navel. We have no citizen military but a mercenary one of our own citizens.
There are some who argue that the Roman Catholic Church was a continuation of the Roman Empire substituting popes for emperors. Who can deny that the Roman Catholic Church did not spread its version of an empire around the world.
Todays barbarians in America at least might be seen in the expanding numbers of gangs. We are told that in 50 metropolitan cities across the land that over half of students dropout of school. That has one outcome which is of course more barbaric behavior. We are breeding our own so to speak.
The nation at large is entering a page in its history where there are expanding numbers of illiterates. We are in a time when the younger generations will not do as well economically as their parents. I dread the thought of being at the mercy of that generation in my old age.
How does one respond? Most will not nor cannot. Even had a Roman seen the future, what could he do about it? Nothing. Families are disjointed in this age. They will not band together or work together for the common good of the family. And despite the naysayers, the family unit is the basis for civilization.
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