Beware an overemphasis on safety! Weird thing to say, right? Allow me to explain. When examining the decline of the United States, one does not need to look far to recognize that America is not the beacon of excellence it once was. Where liberty and resilience once defined the nation, complacency and fragility now dominate much of the cultural landscape. Some have gone so far as to argue, often through strategic indoctrination or ideological subversion, that America was never excellent in the first place. Of course, such claims overlook history and contribute to the erosion that weakens national strength and identity.

Nonetheless, the decline is real, and its reasons are numerous. The shift to the Prussian model of education in the early twentieth century created a system that valued obedience over intellect. Rather than cultivating scholars and critical thinkers, it churned out workers designed to serve the needs of industry and bureaucracy. The outcome is visible today in the deterioration of genuine education, replaced by ideological conditioning that leaves students unprepared to think critically, question, and defend liberty.

Others point to Ideological Subversion, a set of deliberate strategies aimed at weakening the nation by infiltrating its institutions, corrupting its values, and destabilizing its culture with Marxist principles. Still others suggest the ever-expanding federal government that has steadily eroded the Bill of Rights, recasting the Founders as extremists and creating legal structures that undermine individual sovereignty. That’s a lot to take in.

Indeed, each of these explanations carries weight, but they really just represent symptoms of a deeper issue. According to the Adversity Nexus Theory, the core cause is the nation’s pursuit of safety and security. In its earliest years, adversity forged Americans into resilient defenders of liberty. The hardships of war, scarcity, and external threats required courage, education, and collective purpose. Yet once safety became the central pursuit, stagnation and decline followed.

Safety, when elevated above all else, becomes a barrier to growth. Societies that prize security over liberty inevitably construct mental and institutional walls that shield people from challenge, confrontation, and consequence. These walls may feel protective, but in reality, they accelerate decay. When individuals are never forced to confront adversity, they never learn resilience. When institutions prioritize safety above truth, they abandon the rigor necessary for advancement.

The result is a culture of fragility comprised of fragile minds. Safe spaces were created not to foster dialogue or protect genuine vulnerability, but to shield the ignorant, the radical, and the unstable from challenge and criticism. These same individuals now feel emboldened to demand compliance with their ideologies, confident that no real confrontation will follow. They push causes without accountability, break laws without consequence, and erode liberties without resistance. In doing so, they destabilize the very freedoms that once safeguarded the Republic.

What I need you to understand is that this is not merely a cultural inconvenience. If anything, it’s a fast track to societal collapse. A people who no longer understand consequences or respect liberty will not long preserve them. By constructing a society where individuals are insulated from discomfort, America has cultivated generations unprepared for the realities of adversity. And when adversity inevitably arrives, they’ll likely lack the strength, knowledge, and resolve to withstand it. Of course, some of this problem has a lot to do with the supposed men we are raising, but that’s a different article.

Regardless, the pursuit of safety has been packaged as compassion, tolerance, and progress. In truth, it has stripped away the qualities that once made the United States strong: intellectual rigor, moral courage, and personal responsibility. The nation now faces the repercussions of trading resilience for comfort. How is that working for everyone? Liberty cannot survive in such conditions, and without liberty, decline becomes not only possible but inevitable.

The lesson is clear. The illusion of “safety” is not the path to strength. It is the illusion that weakens individuals and societies alike. If America is to recover its excellence, it must reject the false promise of safety and return to the adversity-driven growth that built the Republic in the first place. The question is, how many people do you think are willing to do that?

• Keep Learning: The Adversity Nexus: The Danger of Safety
• Keep Learning: Balancing Risk and Safety