What happened to us?

I mean, seriously. What happened to us? As a country I'm talking about. I'm currently reading the new Lincoln book, (good book by the way.) I was expecting to be impressed by Lincoln, his intelligence, his empathy, etc. What I wasn't expecting was to feel that things were better back then. The book starts out describing the lives of several of the people that were on Lincoln's cabinet during his presidency. In doing so, the way life was in the 1800s is covered quite a bit.

The thing that was remarkable to me was the optimism about America. People wrote essays, books, articles, letters, all about how great it was to be an American, how you can overcome any circumstance to be what you want, etc. (Of course, in order to have learned how to write, you probable were born into an advantaged life. Even Lincoln and his legendary log cabin had a step-mother who was relatively highly educated and who taught him to read. ) Even people from France wrote essays about how great of a country America was! Imagine that now..


Now we again have a country that is once again split bitterly down the middle, but it's no longer as clear what the reason is. Before the civil war, slavery was the main issue, but there were side issues of state vs federal rights, and others as well. Now? Religious extremism? Is this really what's separating the right vs the left right now? That seems fairly stupid to me. I suppose that this is what happens when you found a country based upon religious tolerance and than assume that it only applies to your religion. Idiots.

If there's anything that history has proven, it's that no one culture or country can dominate forever. The fall of the Roman Empire, the British Empire, the Mongols, Alexander the Great, Egypt, etc etc etc. In comparison to many of those countries and eras, we are in the midst of an incredibly insignificant time. Especially if, as it currently appears, the US is already on the downward spiral.