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The War Against Decline

By: Alex Niven

If it feels as though we’re living through a time of decline, that’s partly because social disintegration has been the whole point of mainstream politics for several decades now. But we cannot let collective despair overwhelm us.

Frontispiece, with Statue of Minerva, from "Vedute di Roma", by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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There is an old European folk tale, which most of us know as ‘Chicken Licken’. In the course of the story, the title character wanders around telling various animal comrades (Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey) that the sky is falling down. They believe him, and together they head off on a mission […]

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There is an old European folk tale, which most of us know as ‘Chicken Licken’. In the course of the story, the title character wanders around telling various animal comrades (Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey) that the sky is falling down. They believe him, and together they head off on a mission […]

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There is an old European folk tale, which most of us know as ‘Chicken Licken’. In the course of the story, the title character wanders around telling various animal comrades (Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey) that the sky is falling down. They believe him, and together they head off on a mission […]

There is an old European folk tale, which most of us know as ‘Chicken Licken’. In the course of the story, the title character wanders around telling various animal comrades (Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey) that the sky is falling down. They believe him, and together they head off on a mission […]

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