As we speak of the slouching, sliding and slipping of our grasp on civilization, we are heading for a time of troubles. It is very much like the auto accident we all have had where we cannot control our vehicle and it carries us helpless into crumpled metal and sparks amidst leaking gasoline.  It is a recipe for disaster when we lose control. A list of things going wrong includes the following:

1.  There is war independent of the two wars in which the United States has been involved by the current administration. Battles with “Rebels” in hot spots throughout the world are war, for the seeds of independence had been planted back when the Unites States was only a dream. That dream drives the “Rebels” in impoverished lands still lacking democracy.

2.  There is economic consolidation of ownership of power and production.  Instead of Communism producing a concentration of political, economic and military power in the hands of government, there has been the creation of giant corporations who control governments for their own sake.

3.  Our world is reeling from the constant draining of resources to fill the coffers of the few at the expense of the many. Our forests have been denuded and land fouled with toxins while the many watch the few grow richer as policies favor the already super rich.

4.  Fundamentalism is not only the scourge of Wahabis and Sunnis of the Islamic nations. Fundamentalism waits until the right moment. It lies in wait here in the United States thirsting to control the minds of children in the schools. Fundamentalists are no longer pious good people who tend to their own souls but are interested in making over the world in their own images.

5.  Militarism is on the march. The refuse of war is the munitions and tools of war left over in our drive to win wars that were not that necessary in the first place. It is good to depose kings and dictators. It is not good to create new kings and new dictators. It is not good for the U.S. to be the sole superpower in the world.

6.  In the drive to bring democracy to Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, we are shedding the checks and balances of democracy here at home.

7.  Despite our advanced technology AIDS and SARS defeat us.

We are in no rush. We are gradually slipping, sliding and slouching into terrible times.