The Inevitable Descent

Morris Berman’s trilogy—The Twilight of American Culture (2000), Dark Ages America (2006), and Why America Failed (2011)—paints a grim portrait of a nation doomed by its own DNA. He argues that the United States, built on a hustling ethos of individual wealth accumulation, was destined to collapse under the weight of its materialist obsession. This essay synthesizes Berman’s analysis with contemporary crises—late-stage capitalism, resource scarcity, and accelerating climate chaos—to argue that the U.S. is on a fast track to becoming a police state by the end of 2025, if not as early as April. For those with the means and foresight, leaving the country now is not just prudent but urgent.

The Hustling Heart of American Decline

Berman’s core thesis is that America’s downfall stems from its foundational value system, which prioritizes personal gain over collective good. Drawing on historians like C. Vann Woodward and Walter McDougall, he contends that the U.S. was never truly about republican ideals but about the pursuit of “more”—a drive for wealth that has defined the nation since its inception. In The Twilight of American Culture, Berman compares the U.S. to the late Roman Empire, identifying structural flaws like economic inequality and cultural decay. By Dark Ages America, he notes the failure to reassess post-9/11 foreign and domestic policies, leading to unwinnable wars and economic stagnation. Why America Failed delivers the postmortem: a nation of hustlers, incapable of embracing an alternative tradition of empathy and community, is beyond salvation.

This hustling paradigm, Berman argues, has created a society where “they eat each other” is the apt epitaph. The top 1% own more wealth than the bottom 90%, and financial elites remain unaccountable for crises like the 2008 Wall Street collapse. The American Dream, once about hard work leading to modest comfort, has morphed into a zero-sum game where success demands exploiting others. Even progressive movements like Occupy Wall Street, Berman notes, cling to this dream rather than rejecting it, underscoring the nation’s inability to envision a different path.

Late-Stage Capitalism: Dismantling the Public for Profit

The logic of late-stage capitalism accelerates this decline. As Berman observes, laissez-faire economics—America’s “one ideological basket”—has hollowed out the public sector. Recent events bear this out: mass public-sector layoffs, followed by private-sector firings, are eroding societal stability. The Trump administration’s dismantling of agencies like Health and Human Services, coupled with deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy, prioritizes corporate profits over public welfare. Housing, healthcare, and education are already unaffordable, and spiking consumer prices exacerbate the crisis. The stock market’s volatility threatens further job losses, pushing the nation toward a future of Hoovervilles and extreme poverty.

This privatization frenzy aligns with historian Quinn Slobodian’s observation of a convergence between Wall Street-Silicon Valley interests, anti-New Deal conservatism, and right-wing accelerationism. Accelerationists like Nick Land advocate for capitalism’s unchecked disintegration of social structures, seeing chaos as a path to a technocratic singularity. Figures like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, tied to Trump’s orbit, view the masses as “useless eaters” in an AI-driven world where human labor is obsolete. Their vision—fortified fiefdoms controlled by tech broligarchs—requires dismantling the public sector to consolidate power, a process already underway.

Resource Scarcity and Climate Chaos: The Tipping Points

Compounding this economic unraveling is the polycrisis described by Umair Haque: interlocking crises of public health, economics, climate, and resource scarcity. The Holocene extinction, driven by human activity, is accelerating, with extinction rates 100-1,000 times higher than natural baselines. Honeybee colonies, critical for pollinating 75% of global crops, face a projected 70% decline in 2025, threatening food security. Blue Ocean Events at both poles, likely by 2026, could trigger runaway climate change, releasing methane and raising sea levels to catastrophic levels. A mere 5-6 degrees of warming, scientists warn, could wipe out most life through co-extinction cascades.

These tipping points—methane releases, ecosystem collapse, mass migration—will overwhelm democratic institutions. The Royal Society’s call for reduced consumption and birth rates among the wealthy is ignored as billionaires chase space tourism and private empires. The U.S., with its geostrategic ambitions, may seek to secure resources in Greenland and destabilized Central and South America, but domestically, the focus is on control. The government, aware of these projections, is preparing not to mitigate but to manage the fallout through authoritarian means.

The Police State Horizon

The convergence of these forces—capitalist greed, resource scarcity, and climate chaos—sets the stage for a police state. Recent reports of masked operatives deporting legal residents to gulags, unchecked by judicial oversight, signal a disregard for the rule of law. The Insurrection Act of 1807, speculated to be invoked as early as April 20, 2025—coinciding with a report deadline from Trump appointees Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem—could label protesters “terrorists” and justify mass detentions. Militarized police and private security, backed by a crashing economy and social unrest, will enforce order as dissent is crushed.

This authoritarian turn aligns with the tech broligarch vision of a neo-feudal society. Musk’s dismissal of the 99% as a “parasite class” and Curtis Yarvin’s neoreactionary blueprint for a CEO-like monarch reflect a belief that democracy must be jettisoned to preserve elite power. The police state is a transitional phase, paving the way for fortified enclaves where the wealthy hoard resources while the masses face starvation and disease. Protests, like those on April 5, 2025, demanding an end to corruption and cuts to social programs, are likely to be met with brutal suppression, as historical examples—Vietnam War protests, Iraq War demonstrations—show dissent’s limited impact against entrenched power.

Why Leave Now?

Berman’s insight that happiness requires escaping the American value system takes on new urgency. The U.S. lacks the community, craftsmanship, and heart found in places like Mexico, where life isn’t solely about material gain. Americans, conditioned to see themselves as “temporarily embarrassed millionaires,” are ill-equipped to resist the coming police state. Even the educated, as Berman’s anecdote about the medical school dean illustrates, shy away from structural critiques, their eyes glazing over at challenges to the status quo.

For those with means, staying is a gamble against overwhelming odds. By the end of 2025, the U.S. risks becoming a banana republic where the social safety net is shredded, epidemics rage, and gulags await dissenters. Climate chaos will exacerbate food and water shortages, while global trade ruptures—potentially with the EU, China, and others—undermine the dollar’s stability. The broligarchs may survive in their enclaves, but the 99% face a managed die-off, deemed expendable in a world where AI replaces human labor.

Leaving now offers a chance to build a life in nations less tethered to hustling and more resilient to polycrisis. Countries with stronger social cohesion and sustainable practices—whether in Europe, Latin America, or elsewhere—provide a buffer against the chaos engulfing the U.S. The window is narrow; December 2025 may be too late.

Conclusion

The U.S. is not just declining—it is hurtling toward a police state driven by late-stage capitalism’s greed, resource scarcity’s desperation, and climate chaos’s devastation. Berman’s warning that “they eat each other” is no longer a metaphor but a prophecy unfolding in real time. The Powers-that-Be, from Trump to Musk, are not saving the nation but carving it up for themselves. Aware citizens should heed Berman’s call to escape the American value system—not just philosophically, but physically—before the gulags open and the fiefdoms rise. The time to leave is now, while the door is still ajar.