
Foundation – Fall of the American Galactic Empire - pacificleo11
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/03/26/foundation-fall-of-the-american-galactic-empire/
======
roryisok
> That ominous mood engulfing the world is not a new dynamic, but a cyclical
> event arriving every 80 or so years. Eight decades ago the world was on the
> verge of a world war which would kill 65 million people. Eight decades prior
> to 1937 the country was on the verge of a Civil War which would kill almost
> 5% of the male population. Eight decades prior to 1857 the American
> Revolution had just begun and would last six more bloody years. None of this
> is a coincidence. The generational configuration repeats itself every eighty
> years, driving the mood change which leads to revolutionary change and the
> destruction of the existing social order.

This logic smells.

This "cycle" ignores the first World War and many others. The author includes
the American Civil War and American Revolution as evidence of this "global
cycle", which were not global conflicts. The American Revolution is estimated
to have killed 50,000 people. But the French Revolution happened in 1792 and
killed over 1,000,000, but that doesn't fit the cycle.

1800-1815 - Napoleonic Wars, 3,500,000-6,000,000 deaths. Not part of the
cycle.

1850–1864 - Taiping Rebellion, China - 20,000,000-100,000,000 deaths. Not part
of the cycle.

1862–1877 - Dungan Revolt, China - 8,000,000-20,000,000 deaths. Not part of
the cycle.

The list goes on. Literally.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll)
in case anyone's interested)

> None of this is a coincidence

He's right about that. It's not a coincidence, it's just cherry picking
history.

------
petewailes
When you read part two, you realise just how far this guy has gone off the
deep end. [https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/03/27/foundation-
and...](https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/03/27/foundation-and-empire-
is-donald-trump-the-mule/)

 _" Trump has been underestimated every step of the way for the last two
years. He has thrown sand into the gears of the political establishment, made
up of both parties, and controlled by Deep State players used to getting their
way. Trump was able to use his powers of persuasion to overcome the left wing
media propaganda and motivate a large swath of disaffected Americans to come
over to his side. The never ending barrage of misinformation and fake news
spewed by the Deep State controlled media ignores the fact he won 53% of the
white women vote, along with huge numbers of union workers from blue collar
states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Indiana."_

...and later

 _" The staged violent response by the billionaire funded left wing faux
anarchists, fake news Russian conspiracy propaganda, and NSA/CIA/FBI campaign
to discredit and/or overthrow the Trump presidency is the kind of response you
would expect from a dangerous threatened animal backed into a corner. The
establishment will not relinquish control without a bloody drawn out fight to
the finish."_

The man is well off the deep end into being a Trump apologist and conspiracy
theorist.

~~~
Elrac
I reached the same conclusion at the end of Part I, where the author compares
Trump with the Mule. Either his understanding of Asimov's story was shockingly
poor or he's shamelessly grasping at straws:

The Mule is a truly exceptional mutant, someone like Marvel's X-men, a very
remote possibility of nature that becomes probable only thanks to the huge
numbers of the Empire's lifetime and population. This is about as close as
science-minded Asimov will go to invoke a miracle in a plot.

Trump, meanwhile, is disgustingly unremarkable, an incompetent small-time
crook with a sad set of psychological defects. Had he not won the lottery in
terms of his inheritance, you could find him vegetating in a trailer park in
Arkansas. And had the GOP's bizarre infighting machinations left it with a
single emerging credible candidate, Trump's ship would have sunk long before
the primaries.

What you quoted from the author makes it clear that his grasp of reality is as
tenuous as Trump's.

------
ilaksh
War is a criminal act perpetrated for power and money, and happens because
propaganda is unchecked and human life under appreciated.

