It's our own fault
To save the country, put yourself last
When I was a child, I was taught that the United States is so special that the American experiment in self governance would prove sustainable for all time. We didn’t have to worry about the fates of other nations and powerful empires that dissolved to dust after centuries.
It’s not delusional for young children to maintain the idea of a nation’s permanence. The child who believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny is free to enjoy the innocence of believing the lie that their system of government is timeless and will endure for all eternity. Adults would do well to be more suspicious that promise.
Why do powerful nations eventually fail? There are no magic beans that have been planted in the farms and along the freeways and rivers of the United States that keep it from becoming a footnote in history. As have gone other powers such as the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Achaemenian Empire, and the Han dynasty, no force on earth is immune from the things that might doom us. So knowing the answer to the question — why do powerful nations eventually fail — and then acting on it, seems a moral imperative.
Future generations may learn after the fact, if the truth about it is ever told, that the collapse of the United States was the result of actions we took. We did it to ourselves. It was our own fault. Americans learned, somewhere along the way, that the government could serve to put people’s interests first, above all else, including future generations. The politicians we elected learned to cater to that immediate desire.
For the champions of uncurable diseases, government is the place that funds research into cures. For the elderly, government is the source of welfare and social security checks. For the indigent, government provides food, housing, and medical care. For the farmer, it is the government protects markets from foreign competition, stabilizes crop prices, offers loans, disaster assistance, and product promotion. For the community with a military base, government keeps funding the planes, tanks, munitions, and troops that drive the local economy.
A constitutional republic is a really good idea, but the U.S. Constitution fails to prevent the United States from being led by people whose primary interest is the accumulation and maintenance of power and goal to win the next election. The U.S. Constitution also fails to prevent the people from viewing the government as a treasure trove of endless delights, to be distributed to the masses courtesy of an approving majority in Washington, D.C. and in our state capitols. The politician and the needy constituent have a symbiotic relationship, playing off each others’ worst impulses.
Thus, the United States finds itself trillions of dollars in debt, all because various interests all have their hands out. And politicians, interested in their own political survival, facilitate their country’s own demise one dollar at a time.
Can a nation break the curse of history? Yes! But it starts by electing people who are willing to put themselves last, who are willing to risk their own political careers in the interest of preserving the nation.
Of course, it would help the politicians to do that if only the public bravely put their own interests last, too. In doing so, they would eventually find themselves first.
Heaven is eternal and Earth is lasting.
How can they be eternal and lasting?
Because they do not live for themselves.
That is how they can be eternal.Therefore:
The sage puts himself last and becomes the first,
Neglects himself and is preserved.
Is it not because he is unselfish that he fulfills himself?— Chapter 7 of the Tao Te Ching, translation by Stefan Stenudd