Tuesday, April 19, 2005

The Decline of the West

SJ (RobCrowe at least) traffics in implausible theories of causation. Id est: why did the sun come up today? Because, once again, he couldn't find anything better do. Theory as joke, as it were. Well, SJ has come up with a doozy, but we think it is, in its way, unassailable. We all know that the US once had a golden age (exactly when is of some debate, but ...). SJ thinks that one could do worse than claiming 1945-1965 as that golden age. The dates coincide with a number of interesting events, but really this claim is just a premise for another claim. Because after every Golden Age, one must have a decline (id est, this doomy character's big book). SJ prefers to think of this period as a repose or perhaps decompose, but regardless. Well, what caused the decline of the US. Two things: the end of the Hollywood musical as a viable commercial genre and the onset of the personal computing industry.