Signs of a Dying Empire

[Eric the Green]

(05-08-2022, 02:52 PM)JasonBlack Wrote:

(05-07-2022, 12:04 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: But this 4T is existential. If we don't change our current course in the next few years, there will not be another Awakening, anywhere on Earth.

It's existential for you because you are in elderhood and further removed from the material consequences. It's not existential for mostly-impoverished millennnials and homelanders, and even less for hard-nosed Gen Xers who were realists from the start. The existentialist thinking that should have died off after the last 2T is among the main contributing factors to our current predicament. More thinking along those lines is not the solution.

This 4T is much more existential for Millennials and Gen Z than for older Boomers like me who won't live through the tremendous damage our current political policies will result in. Boomers like me are generally in better financial and more secure circumstances today than younger people are. Boomers like me are more likely than younger people to deny or ignore our current existential crisis.

"Existential" is a word in English, and although it can, it doesn't necessarily imply existentialism. The word existential means what concerns, affects or threatens your existence.

"relating to existence or being alive:
The biggest existential threat to humans is probably still nuclear war."
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dict...xistential

"Existential anxiety tends to arise during transitions and reflects difficulty adapting, often related to losing safety and security. For example, a college student moving away from home or an adult going through a difficult divorce might feel as though the foundation on which their life was built is crumbling."
https://www.verywellmind.com/coping-with...ty-4163485

An example we hear often today is that the Ukrainians define their current crisis caused by Russian invasion of their country as "existential". The existence of their country is under severe threat. Putin counters by saying that if he feels his state is under an "existential" threat, he might use nuclear weapons. People using this term are not necessarily existentialists or engaged in existentialist thinking. The philosophy was named after the word, not vice versa.

Existentialist thinking is one type of philosophy that has some influence, because it is one of the basic kinds of philosophy whose roots go back to philosophy itself. Existentialism is a philosophy that contemplates the meaning or circumstances of existence, or the fact that we exist. It posits that our being or existence is the primary reality, as opposed to essence, which are the traits or types of what exists; contrary to Platonism or other kinds of essentialism. http://philosopherswheel.com/rrr.html

To say it should have died off is therefore ridiculous. This philosophy can be interpreted or developed in various ways. One probable influence is on post-modernism, which has its usefulness, but also is not a very deep philosophy, and can be detrimental in my opinion, especially if taken as the best or only valid philosophy. But this is a digression.

There is no need to harp on the word "existential". It means what I said it means. All 4Ts are existential, because they threaten the very existence of the country if they are not handled and the problems are not dealt with or defeated. The USA is in such a condition today in this currrent 4T.

We may be seeing "signs of a dying empire," or more-likely, we are seeing signs of a threat to our existence, which we should face up to or else we shall perish.