One thing that I have learned as a historian is that nations often act like individuals. Have the same strengths and weaknesses as similar individuals would. The main difference is that the body never grows old. Nations get wiser with age in the same way as individuals. But their body remains young forever.
Take America, for instance. The United States is a very young nation. And we have the mental strengths and weaknesses of a young person. In what I call the American Golden Age, in the late 20th Century from the age of the 57 Chevy to about 1990, we had the qualities of a genius teenager. The Age of Steven Spielberg and Rock and Roll. Impetuous, passionate. Like a young person, we had a much easier time saving someone else in two World Wars and the Cold War than we did saving ourselves in America's current (2024) mental crisis which began in the early 1990's. We acted just like a genius teenager.
And that genius teenager is now, in 2024, dealing with our first adult crisis, the first crisis as an adult where we need to take care of ourselves more than someone else.
The American Civil War was a childhood trauma. We did not have to worry about what happened outside of the Americas until the 1940's. The first time America faced a crisis that was as hard for us as it was for our allies since then was this mental crisis which began in the early 1990's.
And right now we are going through mentally exactly what every adult goes through when they face their first crisis as an adult where they have to take care of themselves rather than save someone else.
I remember what that was like. It isn't easy. But every successful adult has gone through it and faced it successfully.
America will too. Very few adults fail at this, and America is very intelligent and capable.
Nations are like individuals. A young nation has the same mental strengths and weaknesses as a young individual. An old nation has the same wisdom and experience as an old individual- only their body is still young and strong.
I just thought I would pass this on!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson