It is slow growth that kills civilization

A group grows by gaining members. It dies by losing them.

If you want your group to grow you have to gain members. There are different ways to do this, but the best way is to get people to want to join your group. You don't have to let them in, but you have to get them to want in.

How do you get them to want in? The best way is to offer something better than other groups offer.

 

The groups I'm thinking of are nations and civilizations. In days of old, streets paved with gold, the USA was a popular destination. Everyone wanted in. All we offered them, really, was opportunity. They did the rest themselves.

But, as soon as the civilization has ceased to grow, the charm of its culture evaporates.

In recent years, the streets are not paved with gold and no one pretends they are. People still come here, because things are still better here than elsewhere. The opportunities are better. Not good, and not better than in the past, but better than most places. 

 

In this time of general decline, the fact that we remain a better destination than most does not solve the problems created by general decline. Even those of us who come from here sometimes find ourselves on the lookout for a place where things might be better. And most of us, it seems, when we self-identify, no longer think of ourselves first as Americans. Or if we do, we don't see other Americans as American. 

Many people think of this as a problem. It is a problem, but not one that can be solved by changing how people think of themselves. You can't change how people think of themselves. They can only do that for themselves. (Thus the term "self-identify".) As an outsider to that process, the only way to make it happen is to get people to want to join or rejoin your group.

You have to offer them something better than other groups offer. But not just something better than they can get elsewhere. You have to offer them something better than we have been getting here. You have to make things so good that people want to be Americans again, most especially those of us who come from here.

You have to fix the problem, not the consequences. You have to fix the economy.