To make a point...

Ok, the last post was a little sweeping and absolutist. I'll step it down a little. It could be said that the United States is the nation that is farthest forward in time of all the nations of the world. While it is more readily spoken that the US is "the most technologically advanced, or that we are the wealthiest, or the most advanced politically these things, while individually true to one degree or another they are inadequate to accurately describe the position of the US with regard to world history and the evolution of the human race.
the analogy to time is better. It captures the "spiritual" essence of the nature of human advancement and the role of the US in this process until now. With the dawn of the technological age (that being the primary lead we have upon the rest of the world) the nations the the earth have begun to close the gap. One the reasons is that America is failing socially, culturally and morally. Greed has supplanted the work ethic that was at one time world famous. (Alexis de touquiville idolized it his book...) morality has been replaced by the shame filled adherence to the forms of moral superiority and the loud intolerance of others. (the other symptom of moral decline is the obsession with sex) Our identity, mission and purpose has been supplanted by personal arrogance and entitlement and collective hubris.
There is clearly something wrong, but what that is is far less clear. Maybe. The problem is spiritual. In the aftermath of WWII the United States was tasked with the responsibility of guarding democracy against the forces of tyranny. We possessed a clear moral imperative that defined us morally, politically and socially. It gave us both a national as well as individual identity. For forty years from 1947 to 1987 we where the bastion that protected the free world. Then, we won. And the decay was rapid indeed. While it is an over simplification to make the above statement without volumes of qualifiers and analysis I'm equally sure that the fall of the roman empire was just as detailed and ambiguous. The facts are in evidence and the decline is apparent. What is less obvious is why. And that is the reason for the over simplification, we are the wealthiest nation on earth. We are far and away the most powerful military power. So what is declining? And why?