“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.” Historian Will Durant

I don’t mean to imply, by the title of this article, that I think America is about to totally “destroy” itself. I happen to believe that the United States, in some shape, form, or fashion, will be around for a long time into the future. I don’t know what shape, form, or fashion that will be; indeed, America has already monumentally changed, since 1789, from the virtuous, limited, constitutional government (a “confederacy,” Alexander Hamilton called it), into a society with a dominant federal government that does whatever it can get away with. In effect, we have become, in a way, exactly what our Founding Fathers rebelled against.

But time changes many things, and countries are among those things. 500 years ago (1526), England existed, and had a rather autocratic king (Henry VIII). Well, England has certainly altered; it still has a king, who now has no power, but rather has an autocratic national government that has more power than Henry VIII ever dreamed of. I’m not sure Britain is in better shape now than it was under the Tudors. Countries change; a few disappear (Babylon, Assyria, Medo-Persia), but some are still around—Rome, Greece, China, Egypt. Geez, Egypt has been here for 5,000 years now. With major changes, obviously. But, still here.

And I think the United States will survive, too, though again, I don’t know what we will be like 500 years from now. I’m not a prophet. We are a powerful country (still) and powerful countries (usually) don’t disappear rapidly.

The changes come, and sometimes they are monumental. Rome is a city now, not an empire. What will America become? Your guess is as good as mine.

As per the Will Durant quote at the beginning of this column, Rome and America (will be) “conquered,” changed, first by internal forces, then (perhaps) by external........

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