The Rise and Fall of Western Civilisation
POSTED BY: Magonsdaughter
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 1, 2026 15:55
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Despite the references to Australia and Europe, can you relate?
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE WEST - A TIMELINE
1215 - Signed by King John, the Magna Carta guarantees the liberties of the king's subjects and restricts his absolute power. The west is born.
1300s - 1600s - The Renaissance ushers in an age of scientific, intellectual and artistic inquiry and appreciation of ancient Greek and Roman civilisations. Martin Luther sparks the Protestant Reformation.
1440 - Gutenberg’s printing press leads ultimately to the west's greatest achievement: education for all.
1700s - The Enlightenment sees the rise of ideas of natural rights of humans thanks to philosophers including Kant, Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke and Hume. Adam Smith believes in the market being a democratic defence against tyranny.
1700s - 1800s - Industrial Revolution is accompanied by territorial expansion and colonisation.
1950 -Invention of the credit card.
1953 - Iran Coup. The CIA and MI6 organise their first "regime change", a coup to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh after he nationalised the Iranian oil industry. Cold War gathers momentum. The American dream comes true.
1962 –Vietnam War begins just as social revolutions get underway: JFK’s Camelot, sexual liberation, civil rights, women’s rights, rock 'n' roll, drugs, middle class emancipation.
1969 – First moon landing, Woodstock, Altamont. The west peaks with a guitar solo, a peace symbol and a handful of hallucinogens.
Early 1970s – The decline of the west begins as the Greek idea of individualism goes feral and mutates into the "me generation" – especially in the US.
1980s – Reaganism spawns a Gordon Gekko "greed is good" mindset, accompanied by a growing income disparity and the emptying of traditional churches.
1989 - Fall of Berlin Wall. Capitalism wins, parties hard and goes wild.
1990s – Rationalist economics. Globalisation. Mindless consumption.
2000s – Good education skews to the rich. Health care skews to the rich. Inequity skews to the poor.
2001 – USA is attacked. Invades Afghanistan and, two years later, Iraq.
2008 - Lehmann Brothers collapses, GFC, trillion dollar debts.
2011 - European sovereign debt crises. UK riots. Greek riots. Occupy Wall Street protests begin. Kyle Sandilands offends women. The west is doomed.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/society-is-past-its-use-
by-date-20111202-1oajg.html#ixzz1fe8csrU1
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Not sure. The sort of problems that plague Europe today have always plagued Europe. Corrupt bankers run amok, etc. was a problem in most of those centuries. Also, Asia was more prosperous than Europe through those many of those centuries, the Europeans just didn't know it was there. I think the situation is pretty much what it was.
That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.
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bump
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"2000s – Good education skews to the rich. Health care skews to the rich. Inequity skews to the poor."
Hello,
Clearly, this is a timeline with a skewed point of view. The described condition deserves to be limited to no particular date.
--Anthony
_______________________________________________
"In every war, the state enacts a tax of freedom upon the citizenry. The unspoken promise is that the tax shall be revoked at war's end. Endless war holds no such promise. Hence, Eternal War is Eternal Slavery." --Admiral Robert J. Henner
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Plus ça change, plus ça la meme chose.
Tis nothing new.
-----
Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth. -- Lucy Parsons (1853-1942, labor activist and anarcho-communist)
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Anthony's got it, so does CTS.
As for the pattern, it may be a semi-global one now, but the pattern of empires has pretty much been the same throughout history. What CTS said, c'est vrai.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
1953 - Iran Coup. The CIA and MI6 organise their first "regime change", a coup to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh after he nationalised the Iranian oil industry.
^
THIS.
All else aside is just normal for the cycle, but that right there is where it all started to go wrong, as soon as we started putting up puppet dickheads like the Shah - tell me we're not STILL suckin on blowback from that, right now, right here, today ?
And doomed to repeat the cycle, having learned nothing, as we install two MORE pricks of the same stripe who will either be cast down and replaced with someone who hates us, a'la Khomeni, or turn on us when we fuck em over one too many times, a'la Saddam.
Wanna make the world a better place and advance the cause of human freedom ?
Don't bomb the middle east, bomb langley.
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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I agree rampant imperialism is both the turning point when a nation becomes an empire, and also the start of the downslide of that civilization.
So, I might say the Industrial Revolution and the Treaty of Versailles. The Industrial Revolution because of the pollution and because that's when almost everyone became slaves, and the Treaty of Versailles as the political element, it led directly to all the conflicts and invasions around WW2, which in turn has led to all the conflicts of today.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
1953 - Iran Coup. The CIA and MI6 organise their first "regime change", a coup to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh after he nationalised the Iranian oil industry.
^
THIS.
All else aside is just normal for the cycle, but that right there is where it all started to go wrong, as soon as we started putting up puppet dickheads like the Shah - tell me we're not STILL suckin on blowback from that, right now, right here, today ?
And doomed to repeat the cycle, having learned nothing, as we install two MORE pricks of the same stripe who will either be cast down and replaced with someone who hates us, a'la Khomeni, or turn on us when we fuck em over one too many times, a'la Saddam.
Wanna make the world a better place and advance the cause of human freedom ?
Don't bomb the middle east, bomb langley.
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
In fierce agreement.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
I agree rampant imperialism is both the turning point when a nation becomes an empire, and also the start of the downslide of that civilization.
So, I might say the Industrial Revolution and the Treaty of Versailles. The Industrial Revolution because of the pollution and because that's when almost everyone became slaves, and the Treaty of Versailles as the political element, it led directly to all the conflicts and invasions around WW2, which in turn has led to all the conflicts of today.
Excellent additions, Byte
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