[QatzelOk]

Healthy? Sick? Fatal or benign?

Are there neutral criteria with which to determine if one's nation state is in decline?



One author proposes the following check-list:

There are many different criteria for national vitality. First, is the country guarded against foreign aggression and at peace with itself? Are people secure in their homes, free from government harassment, and safe from violent crime? Is prosperity broadly shared? Can the average person get a good job, buy a house, and support a family without doing anything extraordinary? Are families growing? Are people generally healthy, and is life span increasing or at least not decreasing? Is social trust high? Do people have a sense of unity in a common destiny and purpose? Is there a high capacity for collective action? Are people happy?

Is your nation:

1. Guarded against foreign aggression and at peace with itself?

2. Are you safe from goverment harassment?

3. Are you safe from violent crime?

4. Can the average person afford a home and decent life for a family?

5. Is prosperity widely shared?

6. Is lifespan increasing?

7. Is social trust high?

8. Is there a sense of collective unity and purpose?

9 Are people happy?

[BlutoSays]

I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

[Rancid]

Is your nation:

1. Guarded against foreign aggression and at peace with itself?

2. Are you safe from goverment harassment?

3. Are you safe from violent crime?

4. Can the average person afford a home and decent life for a family?

5. Is prosperity widely shared?

6. Is lifespan increasing?

7. Is social trust high?

8. Is there a sense of collective unity and purpose?

9 Are people happy?

This is a reasonable set of questions.

[QatzelOk]

This is a reasonable set of questions.

I noticed you didn't dare post a list of reasonable answers.

Out of fear, I suspect.

Is there a sense of collective unity and purpose?

Among the masked and boosted, perhaps. As long as they have their passport to enter McDonalds.

The Straussian neo-cons seem to be enjoying unity as well. The State Department capture being an example of cooperation.

[Rancid]

Out of fear, I suspect.

Fear of what?

As though any one of us could accurately answer those questions for any nation.

[QatzelOk]

:?:
Fear of what?

As though any one of us could accurately answer those questions for any nation.

That list was made so that "anyone" could answer it. It's based on your perception.

Do you FEEL safe?

Do you FEEL that income distribution is good? ETC.

If you don't have any opinions regarding that list, perhaps you don't really pay attention to where your society is going?

This would have a great impact on your ability to suggest changes, or to detect an upcoming FAIL.

Head in the sand?

[Rancid]

That list was made so that "anyone" could answer it. It's based on your perception.

Do you FEEL safe?

Do you FEEL that income distribution is good? ETC.

If you don't have any opinions regarding that list, perhaps you don't really pay attention to where your society is going?

This would have a great impact on your ability to suggest changes, or to detect an upcoming FAIL.

Head in the sand?

Those questions don't ask "Do you feel safe". They ask "Are you safe". You just decided to add the word "feel" arbitrarily.

Perception is deceiving, and perception can be manipulated. Especially by mass media. I'm sure you can appreciate this statement.

I think these are great questions, but should be answered with precision and accuracy, not feelings.

[QatzelOk]

Those questions don't ask "Do you feel safe". They ask "Are you safe". You just decided to add the word "feel" arbitrarily.

Perception is deceiving, and perception can be manipulated. Especially by mass media. I'm sure you can appreciate this statement.

I think these are great questions, but should be answered with precision and accuracy, not feelings.

All polls like this do is to measure perception.

When the survey says that 60% of Americans are willing to die and destroy their economy "to help win a foreign war," it doesn't mean that this is a fact. It means that 60% of respondents **answered this way.** That's all it means.

The only way to know what people REALLY feel would be to implant some kind of measuring chip in their mind.

Likewise, a question that asks "Are you safe from foreign annihilation" is not asking you for a fact. It is asking for your perception. A person being asked this question can NOT know if he really is safe from foreign annihilation.

It's important to understand how polls work, and how limited they are.

It's also important to answer the questions on the list before you go extinct with your head in the sand.

[Rancid]

All polls like this do is to measure perception.

I'm not interested in poll based answers to this question.

[QatzelOk]

Let me offer my own, Montreal-based persepective. Is Quebec, Canada, North America...




1. Guarded against foreign aggression and at peace with itself?
No. Our neighbors and our federal government... are always picking fights with foreign countries in order to maintain hegemony over them. To do this, they have entered into several entangling alliances - the worst being Israel and Ukraine. Canadian mineral companies are fascistic and murderous in their relations with Latin America and Africa, as well.

2. Are you safe from goverment harassment?
No. We had all our human rights suspended for two years, and our government was clearly not listening to a wide variety of the population during this time of "temporary fascism." Governments of several countries demonstrated just how little social capital and community their citizens have left. Without this, fascism will have no opposition.

3. Are you safe from violent crime?
Yes! Reasonably safe. Where I live, the only violent crime that scares people is car-collision-death. But you can easily avoid this by keeping children inside buildings at all times.

4. Can the average person afford a home and decent life for a family?
No they can't. But billionaires are having fun swapping million-dollar condos.

5. Is prosperity widely shared?
It's not as bad as our neighbors, but there is still the problem that the majority are totally dependent on the central authority for food, income, etc. An elite has put itself into a commanding position that resembles Mussolini's position.

6. Is lifespan increasing?
In Canada, yes. But we're in North America and follow American trends, so that could change suddenly.

7. Is social trust high?
Social trust died behind the windshield of a single-car occupant vehicle driving alone to a single-family home in the middle of nowhere.

8. Is there a sense of collective unity and purpose?
Only regarding Quebec independence and culture. Other than that, there is virtually no cultural basis for Canada.

9 Are people happy?
Quebecois are dying at a lower pace from oxycontin and fentanyl than most regions of North America. That is the only kind of "happy" that we can really claim here. Single-family-home dwelling car-dwellers are usually bitchy because they lose their social skills via their alienation.

***