The more I think about it the more I am convinced western society is heading for a fall the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be something akin to the fall of Rome. How do I know this? Well look at us, we are fast becoming the Roman Empire of the modern world. We have learning and science on our side, we are largely profitable fat and happy. But more than that, as in Rome our cultural literacy is failing, our attention to detail is wandering. Hell just read this e-mail I got at the office. I promise one neat fridge find to anybody who can parse it and figure out exactly why I would follow through with the instructions.

FYI: The refrigerator will be cleaned out on Friday at 2:00 pm. Please make sure your excess garbage is removed or it will be thrown away. Thank you for your cooperation.

I would think that it would be easier to leave my garbage and let them throw it out. I can see rescuing valuable things, like a jar of mayo, and putting it back at 2:30 when the fridge cleaning is over, but why would I go find my excess garbage and remove it? Our choices of entertainment are getting more and more like those of the Romans heading for the fall as well. I am not the first to have said this, nor will I be the last. I wonder how historians 100 years from now or 500 will look back on this time. Will it be the last moments of glory, or the first bit of the slide, are we half way down already and too blind to notice? Who will be the Germanic Tribes in all of this? All those nations we have occupied and policed for their own good? Will the Arabic nations once again be the maintainers of math and science until we can get around to rediscovering the need for it? Or will that fall to the African or Latin American nations?

Pretentious aren't I.