This is How The World Ends...

[The Negotiator]

Good- Doing the right thing for the sake of the Universe while setteling thing's without violence. FUCK IT, we all know without the balance we would either be all GAY and by that I mean HAPPY whitch would result in no free will or all devil's randomly killing each other and that will cause extinction of the thought to be all mortal Universe we live in.

( I know your thinking WTF, but i'm Right for both part's. ) o_0

 

[Kontar]

America is going through a tough time right now, but any country does, and they pull out of it. This is no where near as bad as the fall of Rome, which took a very long time and a ton of contributing factors. America accepting gay marriage will not bring about rain of fire and brimstone, and it will not lead to the end of America. Most likely America will pull through, but be changed after it all. There's been a countless number of people in human history "predicting" or saying the world/their country will fall soon, and almost every time they're wrong.

To all of you asking "since when was the US the world?". Never, but truth is, if the American economy falls it will really hurt other countries' economies. The 1929 economy crash hurt quite a few European countries, not as bad as it hurt America, but it did affect them. And America is a much bigger player in the world economics stage now than it was back then.

 

[Easykill]

When anyone can specifically define "Good", I'll be back from my chat with Nietsche.

Look for my good vs evil poll

 

[Geoffrey42]

I think we can make a deal here...

Washington and Oregon aren't an issue, we'll take them... Woulda asked for Oregon m'self but I thought four states annexed was enough... Likewise Idaho and Montana are good places to add. Now I don't know much about Wyoming, but I guess I need a direct path to Colorado because I don't like to fly... So we'll take Wyoming as well, but not Utah or Nevada.

Now I know little about either Dakota and nothing about Nebraska... Find me a good reason to add them to Canada and we'll talk.

I didn't say this was a negotiation. I was just pointing out what you would have to do to make it happen. Utah is certainly non-negotiable. We don't want it. And we're not giving up the good version of it (Colorado) and not getting rid of it at the same time.

The secret about the Dakotas is that there's actually only one a Dakota, and the North/South thing is something the government made up to hide some unknown activities. If you see North Dakota plates on a vehicle, they're most likely part of the government plan to make people believe, or involved in some sort of surveillance operation. And Nebraska... well... it has farms? Lots of them. And a cool name.

Off-topic: I could never figure out what your avatar was before, but that's pretty sweet.

Also, could we please stop with talking about Rome as if it fell due to corruption, vice, etc? First of all, Rome didn't really 'fall' until 1453 AD if you're going to count the Byzantines, and even if you're not let's not forget: one of Rome's strongest periods was that of the Five Good Emperors, from 96 AD to 180 AD. That's *after* the reigns of people like Nero and Caligula. Second, the fall of Rome is a much more complicated event than all that.

Thank you Cheeze, as always, you said exactly what I was thinking... except, better.

@Easykill:
A. I take offense that you think the majority of Americans actually fall for Bush's "If you're not with me, you're against me" line of reasoning. I believe, as of right now, it is somewhere between [a href=http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm]27 and 38%[/a].
B. Yes, we had a big part in shaping the Middle East. But some of what is going on in the Middle East has been brewing for far longer than the US has existed as a country. Our involvement just hasn't been very positive, on the whole. Also, while you can make the argument that it was always for "the best deal", it was also often because the administration was willing to work with the lesser of what they considered to be 2 evils. They always had a positive (to them) goal in mind, but never recognized how much trouble it would cause them later. Well, not them. They're not around to reap it. We are. Maybe they did realize it, and didn't care?
C. Agreed, everything falls. The question, in all cases, is how long will it take?
D. You need Hope, or you need Fear. You're not getting anything done otherwise. And while "Hope" in and of itself doesn't do anything, it is a worthwhile catalyst.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Dammit

Yeah, but it's not like all British people were anything special before that, I mean, as bad as you think the Chavs are they're not orders of magnitude worse than, say, the National Front or people who used to go "paki-bashing."

'fraid they are. NF and Racists only used to target the minorities and they had the ANL to contend with. Now they're given medals (ASBO's) and given free roam to kick in all groups.

NF/Racists never used to mug grannies in my memory. Now they do that as well as everything the NF did.

Maybe, but, let's not forget: long before the Americans had Gitmo, the British has the H-Blocks and Long Kesh.

A bit of a jump to associate personal Hunger Strikes with deliberate Torture though.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

America and China will lock the world into a perpetual cyclic system of consumption until we consume every resource on the planet and our society collapses.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Good- Doing the right thing for the sake of the Universe while setteling thing's without violence.

Heh. When anyone can tell me what the sake of the Universe is, I'll be back.

[Really, what's Good for one is likely to be Bad for another. Saddam was killing Kurds for decades before America jumped in.]

 

[The Negotiator]

Sake of Universe- just a saying that somebody made up because humans on earth belive in different things. Nobody wants the universe to die out!

This all connect's with the balance of good and evil.

 

[Kongatron]

I've found this thread to be... interesting. Infact; although I've been reading through the forums for some time, this is the one topic that has made me register just so I could reply to it. And, although I have alot to say, I'm going to focus on one point, partially addressed by GrowlersAtSea. Here we go:

I'm currently in the process of writting a small paper (about 25-40 pages) to present at a comunity assembly in June, and it relates to the Fossil Fuel dependant economy we now have. Let me clear some things up: firstly, oil and natural gas are not going to run out in the next five years. Ignore what people tell you, there will be some left for atleast a decade to come. HOWEVER: there is what we call "easy oil", which will, for the purpose of this post, be defined loosely as oil that takes less energy to mine and refine than the overall energy gained by gaining access to said oil. Easy oil is running out. Prices will go up. Things will happen. They will include:
- revealing the true price of Fossil Fuels. For a long time, oil and gas have been sold cheaply, thanks to tax-cuts, reductions and what you can generally refer to as "breaks" for the oil/gas companies. If these "breaks" were to suddenly disappear, companies would raise prices because otherwise, they would be losing money.
- Food prices will skyrocket. What does this have to do with Oil/Natural gas? Many of you may not know, but in the 1960s, with the introduction of the Green Revolution, many types of fertilisers and insecticides were added to food production at farms across the globe, effectivly doubling (and then some) the yield of their crops. What were these fertilisers and insecticides made from? You guessed it, oil and natural gas. With no cheap oil/gas, there's no cheap fertiliser/insecticide. With no cheap F&I, there's no cheap corn/wheat. With no cheap corn/wheat for Feed, meat and animal products will also skyrocket.
- Transportation will change. Nobody can predict exactly how, but it could vary anywhere from sudden drops in car-usage to introduction of cheap electrical vehicals. With lack of fuel, people will lose their ability to easily (and cheaply) travel. What are we doing to solve this? We, believe it or not, are throwing our remaining food at the issue. Yes, we have come up with Biofuels. They are "renewable" and "efficient", but really, the corn used to make the majority of Biofuel is USING FOSSIL FUELS.

Ultimatly, we're facing a major crisis. When fuels hit sky-high prices, so will everything else, except of course your wages. There are a few wholes in this post, due to me writting this down at 1am, but I'd be happy to reply to anything related.

 

[Dody16]

You ask a very curious question. I've given this some thought, but I could never come to a conclusion, or ask the exact question you do.

I think this is something that is impossible to predict, at least in a presise way.
even though think and hope the power that the U.S. posseses moves slowly to whatever country next in line, I'm really not really sure. Then again, my hope for such a thing may be affecting my thinking, and that's why I'm not sure at all.
I will say this, it probably won't be as bad as you imagine.

 

[Geoffrey42]

Ok, I think I may have found a way to make this work...

Let's take Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan (if only for the land, and the rights to sing "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate"), Half of the NWT, and the Yukon. Add into this Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, plus Hawaii and Alaska. Next we annex Japan, North and South Korea, and everything in China east of Shenyang. Add in that last chunk of Russia, everything east of Tynda... We shall call this new nation the "Pacific Canadian Coalition", and claim all the waters between our lands.

And Utah has to sit in its corner and think about what it's done wrong.

Then, in the center of the pacific, deep on the ocean floor, we shall build the world's first Coldframe computer, and set up a gigantic million-person Battlefield 2 Spec Forces battle... Iron Gator and Warlord.

If you take New Mexico and/or Arizona, I guess I'll be moving to Canada. I've always wanted to Canada, but I've always wanted to live in Arizona/New Mexico. Do I dare to dream? This whole downfall-of-the-US thing is looking up for me! Sweet.

Can we please play a better game than Battlefield 2 though?

They are at the top of the scientific field.

Said same individuals have been wrong before. I'm not saying we should ignore them, or that they are wrong, just that nobody who isn't God should have their word taken as fact. Not just because they aren't God, but because people are wrong, a lot.