How to Diagnose if a Community is Declining?

Determine if the community is discarding traditional morality, a condition immediately marked by the disappearance of manners which themselves are dictated by morality. Politeness is a prerequisite for public order which is why it is constantly refined by the improving understanding of a waxing community.


The opposite result is documented by Edward Gibbon in his work "The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire" which reveals the decline of the Roman empire was paralleled by a decline in the morality of its citizens. 


Determine if the general use of language is losing discipline, for this can only mean the general use of thought is also losing discipline, which is a decay of understanding. Such a result is indicated by the disappearance of plain speaking from citizens' sentiments. An undeniable symptom of the malaise is the deliberate use of more words than necessary, such as invoking "at this moment in time" instead of "now", or "the state of the art" instead of "latest". And the addition of surplus words such as converting a "riot" into a "riot situation" and "opportunity" into "a window of opportunity".
As well as the blurring of meaning caused by the popular adoption of vague words like "situation, position" and now (circa 2003) "focus". The less precise our language the less precise our thoughts and the less precise our thoughts the more vague our language; which is a self-sustaining cycle of increasing weakness of understanding or as George Orwell put it:
"A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."—Politics and the English Language, 1946, which makes decay in the general use of language the indisputable hallmark of a declining civilization.


Consider the community's general attitude to truth; a civilization rises because it pursues truth, it falls when it suppresses truth.