Responding to msg by chen@intuit.com (Mark Chen) on Thu, 1 Sep 4:47 PM
This country's "progress" is really just a series of grudging concessions made by authoritarian power structures to various nearly catastrophic crises.
Good observation about periodicity, Jim, but I'd say that the typical span is much shorter than 100 years.
Jim and Mark, Sound remarks about domestic upheavals. Parallel to these, it should be added that internal strife has declined as US foreign interventions have increased. From Teddy Roosevelt forward, whenever domestic strain builds, there just happens to be an urgent matter somewhere else that needs patriotic attention to our "national interests". Soothing, addictive, social and economic bribes flow from warmaking -- industrial growth, jobs, education, research, technological advances. A bitching citizenry is a happy citizenry where domestic Government affairs are concerned, but the most obedient people are those united against a foreign foe. Lesson 1 of world affairs leadership. John