Comment by midev | Hacker News Reader

Comment by midev | Hacker News Reader

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> I don’t believe Americans would have the experience, social customs, physical stamina, emotional fortitude or knowledge to survive reasonably well if conditions took a serious turn for the worse.

It wasn't flag football or nerf that got us to the top.... We literally dominated everyone in everything, and continue to do so. Whether it be the military, sports (we just got done dominating the Olympics), tech, whatever.

It's absurd to think that given societal collapse, it would be the American's that struggle the most, and not, you know, the people that can't even make it when times are good...

You can knock us with a bunch of made up criticisms, like "emotional fortitude". But at the end of the day, every country still bends the knee to our "physical stamina". So that doesn't really say much about the rest of you surviving if conditions took a turn for the worse.

Of course the United States has been very successful in the past, leading to our current position, which I don’t think is quite as firmly or permanently primary as you believe. The reasons for American dominance in the late 20th century are numerous. I’d point out that we weren’t the site of any major wars in the 20th century, unlike most other developed nations.

The “people who can’t make it while times are good” are already surviving under the difficult conditions we are discussing, so I’m not sure what you mean.

I do believe that emotional fortitude is a real thing that affects people’s ability to function under duress. And you’re correct, America currently maintains an incredibly expensive military dominance. I’m not sure how you think that addresses anything I said. My concerns are about the social fabric of the country not being particularly resilient and middle/upper class individuals being entirely inexperienced at dealing with actual physical hardships. That’s not something that a strong military or past success is going to fix for us.

The (very briefly touched upon) topic is what Americans would do if they had to endure conditions such as those experienced in the USSR, for any theoretical reason. Basically all I said is that many people would find it difficult, having never experienced that.

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