Decline Is a Choice - Start of Year Update

I feel a bit like I'm beating a dead horse on this, but recent stories in the press provide a nice update on the topic:

• David Brooks' column this week in the NYT on "Why Hagel Was Picked" asserts that the US will rapidly and significantly weaken militarily because we value health care more.
• George Friedman (STRATFOR) had an interesting discussion last week of the societal risks posed by pervasive high levels of unemployment in Europe.
• Friedman also discussed the same issue vis-a-vis the US this week.  Friedman's historical discussion is especially pointed, but like all secular analysts he ignores the root cause: the accelerating destruction of social capital (especially faith & family) caused by the rise of a culture of envy, greed, and narcissism that worships at the idols of government (as god), radical individualism / autonomy, and radical egalitarianism.

The classic image is from the October 19, 2009 Weekly Standard cover ... "Obama Contemplating a Bust of Carter" ... except this time the mood is much uglier than mere "malaise" (though Carter's three-sentence "crisis of confidence" statement was, from a secular perspective, reasonably accurate).