By Way of a Beginning

Social decline? Social decay? Social breakdown? We wondered which of these phrases, none of them “scientific” in nature, would best apply to the current situation in the United States. Social decline—too mild. Social decay—that suggests a process too slow. Social breakdown—perhaps that’s too strong, though each passing day makes it seem an appropriate term. Or, let’s say, a handy approximation. In the pages that follow there is a sufficient accumulation of eviden...