Loyalty Forgotten

I considered throwing the system of question selection out the window and simply picking a question, but decided not to do so in favor of maintaining my organized system of chaos. I added it in as usual, and it happened to be the one that ended up getting selected after all! w007!
Also, I added a couple of new categories for questions, music and favorites, in order to lighten up the questions a little. It might work, although the deep discussions are one of the biggest reasons I'm doing the blog, so we'll see how I like them in the long run. I might decide to dive deep into specific songs instead of simply floating the surface, but for now the questions are pretty simple.

Anyway, I have been thinking about Patriarchy and systemic methodology a lot over the last couple of days (triggered by a discussion about arranged marriages in my Hindi class), and I realized that our society could have a fundamental issue that goes to the heart of the way we act as individuals, and this comes from us forsaking Loyalty.

Now, I don't really want to get into my theory too much in the question, I'll leave it for the answer, but the basics come down to this: Society is forged in the furnace of joint loyalty: a chief owes his people leadership and protection, they owe him food and pretty girls. A father owes his children leadership and education, they owe him honor and dignity in his old age. A priest owes his flock leadership and spiritual guidance, they owe him monetary assistance and um... choir boys? Ok, maybe not the best example.

Here's the question: What lines of loyalty do you have in your life right now? Now, I'm specifically talking about societal expectations and the idea that you don't just owe a favor, but that you owe the individual or organization something more, something to do with honor, something that surpasses mere legality or convenience. Do you owe anyone?

Rise and Fall of the American Empire

In studying the patterns of History, the potential for collapse becomes very clear: every Empire, no matter how large or powerful, must collapse or be conquered at some point. While the United States being conquered any time in the near future is unlikely, it seems a little more likely that the American Empire could be on the verge of collapsing into chaos and ruin. Bound to happen at some point, what do you think is the likelihood of it happening in the immediate future? What do you think the causes of this collapse would be, or what still needs to happen for the collapse to occur?