Traditional Families will survive America's collapse

Two hurricanes have exposed America to be significantly less stable than befits the image of the world’s sole remaining superpower.

The inflationary cycle that has begun with the reduced supply of oil has exposed the fact that American currency has lost value due to the over abundance of borrowed money saturating the economy. The rampant looting and vandalism that claimed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina exposed a social abandonment of moral restraint. Countless thousands of people who allowed themselves to be herded from their homes by the government showed a lack of common pride and initiative.

The neglect of the government, on all levels, to use public money to serve the American public was demonstrated for all the world to see. Funds intended to maintain and repair levees protecting New Orleans are known to have been diverted to the cause of establishing a "Pax Americana". Local governments along the Mississippi Delta have devoted more effort to finding legal loopholes that allow for casino gambling than they have for assuring stable communities and solid business foundations. The failure of government on all levels has proved that America’s political system and government has been overtaken by a narcissistic spirit that has rendered the US Constitution null and void.

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As in every other social collapse those who can least survive the same in America will face the harshest punishment. Already the executive managers of America’s corporate structures are moving operations to India and China where emerging consumer markets dwarf that of the US. The consumerism of China and India, however, is supported by a sufficient supply of cheap labor that is rooted in their caste cultures and oppressive governments. Subsequently the American working middle class is no longer an attraction for industrialists and the consumer debt that imperils the American economy is considered to be a bad business gamble.

America’s moment of prominence has faded. The culture and people that brought the Soviet Union to its knees have been passed over for the promise of great wealth and power of the New World Order. America’s political parties are preoccupied simply with taking hold of the presidency so they can fill Democrat and Republican treasuries with donations from global corporations that find the bargaining power of America’s military to be a useful negotiating tool to find and establish new labor markets. A working middle class is considered a detriment to stock investors who value paper profits over working families and stable communities.

American citizens have been abandoned by the major institutions in government, the economy, and culture that built the nation to power by benefiting from the vigor and work ethic of American citizens. As those institutions continue to abandon the country or decay from corruption the people in this country will face the need to find safety in old traditions and more basic relationships.

American citizens have played a significant role in the cultural and economic meltdown that is a threat to the future. We have been too quick to take debt as a tactic to achieve desires and status. Too often we neglect the private enterprise base of our communities to seek the discounts offered by corporate businesses using profits to buy their way out of this country. We have allowed shallow platitudes to supplant thoughtful depth in political debates.

Our greatest national disgrace, however, is the ease with which we dispatch our most intimate relationships and selfishly act to destroy those to whom we should be most devoted. According to the US Census Bureau nearly half of the two million annual American marriages will end in divorce. This crisis in family stability is magnified by dual career pursuits by married couples, the commonplace and untraceable practice of cohabitation, and the social menace of illegitimate births. These phenomena have, perhaps, fueled the sorry status of America’s economic, political, and governmental institutions by cultivating generations of dysfunctional individuals to claim power within them.

Empires rise and fall, but families have existed from the beginning of time. As America’s place of power slides with her culture, those who are wise will seek to restore the basic relationships that can help them survive the turmoil of a system in collapse.

Bob Strodtbeck has been writing editorial commentaries since 1993.  He has professional experiences in pharmaceuticals, radio, and education.  He has also served as a church elder in an Orlando congregation where he has made his home since 1986.