Well, what do you think it would take?

Quoted: Well, what do you think it would take?

200 megatons.

200 years....back to 1804.

Nukes or a large meteor.

No electricity,plumbing,pop tarts, hot pockets and double ply tp should do it.

But a nice game of chess may just do the trick...

The "people" we are at war with right now, winning and subjugating us. Actually, it would set our civilization back far more than 200 years so my answer may not apply.

Anybody think an economic disaster could blow us back? Think the Great Depression times a million. Maybe not 200 years but maybe 100. Just a thought.

germ warfare, or plague...

Quoted: Well, what do you think it would take?

People pacifying Islam....of wait...we are already doing that.


SGatr15

One large rock, about 15mi in diameter, impacting from space.

Or one tiny nickel-iron meteorite, mounting in a Silver vulva, sitting at the heart of Mecca.

Quoted: Well, what do you think it would take?

Simple...

The 'People's Revolution' some of the zelots on this board (and their liberal counterparts on DU) advocate...

When the fan stops spraying shit all over the place, you'd have chaos, and from chaos would arise a dictator who would make Hitler seem like a saint...  

The bloody power struggle to see which meglomaniac gets to be King of the Hill would wreck the US economy if the initial chaos didn't, and we'd basically end up a huge version of Somolia in 1990

Quoted: Quoted: Well, what do you think it would take? Simple... The 'People's Revolution' some of the zelots on this board (and their liberal counterparts on DU) advocate... When the fan stops spraying shit all over the place, you'd have chaos, and from chaos would arise a dictator who would make Hitler seem like a saint...   The bloody power struggle to see which meglomaniac gets to be King of the Hill would wreck the US economy if the initial chaos didn't, and we'd basically end up a huge version of Somolia in 1990

Dave you seem to disagree with the concept of an armed rebellion against the government and while I can see your view of how it would be devistating, dont you think it one day may be necessary to overthrow a possible hitler throught the force of arms?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Well, what do you think it would take? Simple... The 'People's Revolution' some of the zelots on this board (and their liberal counterparts on DU) advocate... When the fan stops spraying shit all over the place, you'd have chaos, and from chaos would arise a dictator who would make Hitler seem like a saint...   The bloody power struggle to see which meglomaniac gets to be King of the Hill would wreck the US economy if the initial chaos didn't, and we'd basically end up a huge version of Somolia in 1990 Dave you seem to disagree with the concept of an armed rebellion against the government and while I can see your view of how it would be devistating, dont you think it one day may be necessary to overthrow a possible hitler throught the force of arms?

Yes, if that were to befall us - if an individual were to shut down the political process and declare himself Emperoro, or whathaveyou...

Of course, we'd likely see a coup de etat & restoration of the present order before a civil revolt could be organized, the military as it is presently composed would not be sympathetic to some goon deciding he's king of the world...

Islam if left unchecked.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Well, what do you think it would take? Simple... The 'People's Revolution' some of the zelots on this board (and their liberal counterparts on DU) advocate... When the fan stops spraying shit all over the place, you'd have chaos, and from chaos would arise a dictator who would make Hitler seem like a saint...   The bloody power struggle to see which meglomaniac gets to be King of the Hill would wreck the US economy if the initial chaos didn't, and we'd basically end up a huge version of Somolia in 1990 Dave you seem to disagree with the concept of an armed rebellion against the government and while I can see your view of how it would be devistating, dont you think it one day may be necessary to overthrow a possible hitler throught the force of arms? Yes, if that were to befall us - if an individual were to shut down the political process and declare himself Emperoro, or whathaveyou... Of course, we'd likely see a coup de etat & restoration of the present order before a civil revolt could be organized, the military as it is presently composed would not be sympathetic to some goon deciding he's king of the world...

Thank you for your well-thought out response.

A simple majority vote among nine black-robed men and women.

Even in a massive terrorist attack, civil war  or economic catastrophe, I don't think the country would be set back that far. Modern societies have never imploded that severely even in the worst disasters. THe collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia were bad but not so disruptive.

I think it would take a true global catastrophe - the supervolcano, asteroid or similar event. Even then, I think civilization would quickly recover to an 1890's level of technology.

Take out the internet, screw up the telecommunication system (those two go hand in hand), destroy prominent universities and librarys, take a smack at the powergrid while you're at it.  There you go, most people in America will go batshit loco, they won't know whether to shit or go blind.

Edited to add: making fossil fuel inaccessable.  If things were this bad then its a very good chance that fuel would be a hot commodity.

Give the country to the Dems and turn in our guns.

EMP, either high level nukes or widespread use of EMP devices

Quoted: Well, what do you think it would take?

Any sort of actual civil war; look at countries like the former Yugoslavia; protracted civil war  with modern weaponry sends modern countries back to the dark ages with no hope of rebuilding without a lot of foreign aid.

AR15.com servers going down for more than 3 days

Forcing the whole country to take the manditory,12 hour, Iraqi cultural awareness class that the Army gives.

No TV!

Quoted: A massive failure of our power grid that damaged a great number of transformers, would totally screw us.  Our grid is already in bad shape, and some folks in the NorthEast learned very well last year just how fragile it is.  If you think no electricity is bad for a week or two, imagine a YEAR or two.  So many businesses would fail that it would devistate out economy. -Troy

Troy beat me to it.  If you irreperably destroyed power substations at key locations in the US such that it would take a year or longer to rebuild (and consequently, a year or longer before much of the united states got electricity), we would /MOST DEFINITELY/ be thrown back 150-200 years.

The people in the Northeast were civil and helpful as many people point out, but what is unsaid is that they KNEW the power was coming back on in a few days, a week at most.  IF the power had been out for a week, two weeks already and people had NO IDEA when it was coming back on, /then/ you would start to see some serious panicking.

Anyway, just think how much of our modern world DEPENDS on electric power?

Quoted: I can set us back to September 1939 pretty quickly by calling for the death of the Jews ... no they've been done before ... lets do Muslims this time.

Last time I checked, the jews weren't strapping bombs to their children and sending them to blow stuff up.

But hey I could be wrong!

About 30 well placed EMF devices.

You trolling for ideas or something???

Quoted: Islam if left unchecked.

Islam unchecked would bring us back more than 200 years.  Maybe about 1300.  I  think that Islam unchecked is more than likely to bring us back than anything else right now.

Bilster

Quoted: EMP, either high level nukes or widespread use of EMP devices

+1 on this.


Our society has come to depend on electronics so VERY much that even our cars are electronicized (is that a word?)

A series of EMPs over most of the country would disrupt everything from hospitals to our microwave ovens....and think about how many people actually cook, with a STOVE, nowadays?

Our highly computerized distribution systems for everything from food and gas to toilet paper would cease to exist; and since most stores don't have anything more than a 1 week supply of food available, there would be almost instant shortages in the bigger cities, that would eventually spread to the smaller ones.  Those in the rural areas would do better because of the need to be more self-sufficient.  And, since we've come to rely on electronics so much, no one has the foggiest clue how to run the same systems manually.

No car made after about 1983 would be able to work, since they all have electronic ignition.  Air conditioners, furnaces, refrigerators, etc., would all stop working.  So would trucks hauling food and other goods across the interstates.  All forms of communications (with the exception of maybe CB radios not hooked up to their antennas at the time of the EMP) would stop working as well.  Railroads would still function, but only with a lot more manual control.

Even our power grid would suffer, since most of it is computer-controlled.  

To make matters worse, the repairing the damage would take forever, since replacement parts wouldn't be able to be ordered or shipped, if available; in addition, think how long it would take to repair the manufacturing capability to produce the parts you would need to repair a nation-wide outage.

Yep, massive EMP across the country would do the trick.