Will America's original freedom be its downfall?

Is America's freedom going to be it's downfall?
We think this is the best system ever created but seeing as we are one of the youngest countries, maybe all of this (or what used to be) freedom can only work for so many years. Right now America is 238 years old and it seems that the system is falling apart.

Everything we do or think, contradicts what our neighbors do or think. This leads to constant arguing and fighting amongst ourselves...It happened during the 1800s with slavery, into the 1900s with segregation, abortion, seperation of church and state, and it is continuing into the 2000s with gun control, privacy issues and much more. One person thinks abortion shouldn't be legal so the person who wants one, shouldn't have the freedom to do so. But, if a person wants to own a gun because it is their right to do so, it can be dangerous, so that person shouldn't have the freedom to buy one. Examples similar to this go on forever.

Right now U.S. citizens are losing freedom when it comes to privacy (and many other things) one step at a time. It seems that with all of the fighting we do amongst ourselves (because it is our constitutional freedom to do so) it inevitably leads to a solution that takes away our rights in someway which in return leads to more fighting, and more 'rights taking'.

Freedom is a God given right...but is it something that can prevail forever? At 238 years it seems like America is losing most of it's freedom...With freedom comes restrictions...

Maybe this doesn't make sense to everyone, but does anyone else see a problem with the direction our freedom is headed?

Will the freedom given to U.S. citizens be the downfall of our country since so many people fight against equal freedom? Republicans, Democrats and many people inbetween seem to want it to be "my way or the highway" which doesn't work...

There just haven't been free empires or countries in the past and maybe there's a reason why. It just doesn't work after a certain amount of time.


I appreciate opinions

reply to post by Honestabe28


"The beginning of the end of a democracy is when people discover they can vote themselves funds from the public pot."

I can see your point, but what alternatives are there? Authoritarianism? No thanks.

Freedom is only a word to sell to the public for gaining power.

Same as often religion is/was being misused by those in power to gain influence and power.

If I had to guess greed and egocentric behaviour would be the downfall.

reply to post by NavyDoc


The founders understood this which is why they created a representative republican form of government. We have certainly devolved into a democracy over the years. And we all know where democracy leads...

I don't think it's freedom in and of itself that has caused all of our problems. After all, we became the wealthiest country precisely because of our economic/property/individual freedoms (except blacks in the South hypocritically) and the creation of an economic system with restricted regulations and low taxes. The problem in my view is that we have become an overly selfish nation where citizens in society are judged by the size of their bank accounts rather than their contributions to society (think Justin Beiber and the outrageous wealth gap between the 99 and 1 percenters). Ask the average person who Nikola Tesla was and you'd get a blank stare.

If we were a more voluntarily giving people, the government wouldn't have enough support from the disadvantaged to take more from the pot (which has shrunk next to nothing other than our Chinese loans). It is the glorification of the "self" as the ultimate egoistic image that has led the wolves to the hen house. We need to become socially and universally aware of this devastating mindset and educate our youth to become adventurers rather than paper collectors. Just my two cents.

Look how Obama (or Bush before that), needs tons of securtiy/military whenever he visits a country.

In my country there will be soon a nuclear security summit in The Hague, Obama will be there and mostly because of Obama, they go crazy to make sure everything goes without danger. Every house will be looked in, names written down who live there.
Soccer games cancelled, tv shows cancelled, 13.000 cops!!!! for security, the costs unknown... lol 13.000 cops, we got in total 64.000 cops!

Just for a meeting, where they talk and those same guys preaching always about freedom, thos who needs the most security!! and probaly most scared preaching freedom.

Not that long ago in my country political figures didn't need security at all, they could just walk freely in the shopping mall alone.

IMO they should have all those international meetings somewhere on an island, because the security measurements in itself has become crazy in costs and you name it.

reply to post by Honestabe28


Star and Flag OP

Just some general observations:

1. This country is not and never has been a Democracy. It is a Republic, learn the difference.

2. The downfall of this country began when congress set up a central bank.


a. Eliminating competition in the banking industry.

b. Setting up the FED to print and issue monies, with nothing to back the currency but debt.

c. Allowing companies to be legally viewed as "persons" and to donate to campaigns, has set up a situation where our "representatives" cater to the highest bidder rather than to their constituents.


3. We "the people" allowed our "servant" the federal government to grow too large and become too powerful.

4. We "the people", or at least many of us, have become dependent on government handouts, i.e. welfare, food stamps, etc.

Solutions are not Easy or Simple.
How do you "trim the fat" when so many are dependent on it to survive?

reply to post by Honestabe28

It made more sense to have the freedom to carry a gun when that gun could also be used to kill wild animals for food or to protect your family from them. It also made more sense back then because there were no police cars or helicopters to transport policeman 55mph or faster to police a wide area. People had to "police" themselves because the fastest thing back then was horses and yet even horses had trouble in the rain and on certain kinds of terrain. There were also less roads and less lights which added to the problem of policing areas. There was a time when weren't even roads or strong foundations for governing. There was also a lack of communication technology so it was difficult to hunt people down effectively.

Guns have also become more and more potentially lethal. More and more legislation and policing is required to restrict the use of firearms. This is happening as our planet is seemingly smaller and smaller.

The modern counterpart to a gun 150+ years ago would probably not be a gun. It might be something as prosaic as a pesticide or home computer. I don't know exactly what it's, but 150 years from now the freedom will be challenged. It might not even be 150 years, since the progression could be exponential.

All in all, what I'm saying is the kind of freedoms we have correlates with our technology and knowledge and ability to integrate.

This is what makes me think eventually Earth will be like a nation and the rest of the planets will be like other continents. Humans will spread to the other planets just like they left Africa and spread across Earth. Eventually the rest of the planets will unite as a nation, but other stars will be like other continents. This is all dependent on the ability to develop the technology to travel and communicate and to effectively use it all together. Since I don't think the progression is always linear, we could skip planets and jump right to stars. Either way, there'll probably be other "continents" to explore and settle. The past and future rhyme like a song.