<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Jan 12, 2006, at 2:18 AM, Russell Wallace wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV><DIV>The entities exterminating us aren't aliens from outer space in flying saucers with force shields that can withstand a nuclear explosion. The terrible truth is that we already know them. MTV. East Enders. Zoning laws. MAs in political science.<BR> <A href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760">http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760</A> <BR> It makes sense, of course; the one thing an exterminator meme can't look like is an exterminator meme, otherwise almost by definition it wouldn't be one. Bacteria die to penicillin; HIV, the simplest thing, slips by.<BR></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>I read this article. Not to put too fine a point on it, I found it laughable. Religious faith is not going to save the West and secularism sure as hell isn't dooming it. As much as I think welfare statism is evil and dangerous I can't in honesty lay the blame there except as a large contributory drain on the economy and on the character of the people. The notion that we must reproduce more this close to Singularity is the biggest laugh of all.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>What is wrong imo is that we have lost heart, lost vision, lost fire as a people. We have lost it to enshrinement of mediocrity and it has died from a million cuts, mostly inflicted by our own government on us and in the world, draining away our self-respect and belief in ourselves as a people. Civilizations decline for many reasons. But a common denominator is that in their hearts their people no longer believe in the goodness of the country or its ideals or if they do then they don't believe those ideals can ever be achieved. They become sneak thieves out to grab what they can before the house of cards comes crashing down.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>We need a new strong vision. I thought transhumanism or extropianism might help supply it. But one of those is being shanghaied by the Left and the other seems to doubt that creating such a Vision is even a good thing.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>In America we have dug ourselves a deep hole. Our total debts and account payables approach $40 trillion. We have been fed too long at the public and private level the notion that we can spend, spend, spend our way into prosperity. We have spent. So much so that the individual savings rate is negative and the government has become the largest debtor nation in history. We suck down > $ 2 billion a day of foreign money just to pay for the party. We are only a few more missteps away form financial ruin. Our descendants are in hock before they begin.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The threat is from ourselves to a large degree. It is from our assumptions of superiority and of wealth without any longer paying much attention to where wealth comes from or what it takes to create and grow it. After the stock bubble blew followed by 911 many of us Americans made ends meet and kept right on consuming by sucking down easy credit and cheap money by taking cash out of our homes. So much so that the retained equity in homes fell rapidly. We created a housing bubble in the process that is now venting and deflating. We spent so much energy and determination keeping that bubble growing that we put out interest only loans and no down payment loans that actually gave back money to the buyer. In 2005 it is estimated that over half of the home sells had these very questionable types of loans and that over 40% of the sales were bought not as primary residences but on speculation that the prices would continue to rise. Woe to the banks who hold the derivatives guaranteeing these loans. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The key to the future is surely knowledge and education. In America according to recent studies over 60% of college graduates are not competently literate. China is turning out engineers and scientists an order of magnitude faster than we are. India's college level education is much tougher than our own and people compete fiercely to get into the technical programs. These people of the East are bright, hardworking and hungry. If we in the West do not wake up from our complacency they will eat our lunch. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>All of that and more has zip to do with religion or how fast we breed or how secular our culture is or even with welfare and social entitlement. It has a lot to do with a mixture of cynicism, arrogance, ignorance and lack of enough courage to look at reality.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>- samantha</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>