Watching the bumbling decline of our empire over the course of a lifetime (I was born of the euphoria of its zenith after WW2), these last two decades seem to be in free fall - possibly into the apocalypse. Can the damage brought about by the catastrophic failure of American vision and leadership be reversed? In 2009, a new day seemed to be dawning. But it was a false dawn. In 2021, as fires, floods, plague, futile wars and tribal hatreds engulf us, it seems that the American experiment is headed toward the dustbin of history -- and taking humanity with it.