it's comforting to know that even in 2800 BC society looked like it was going to collapse. maybe government and children always have been and always will be corrupt. maybe we're not on a down hilll slide, this is just the way it is.

"An Assyrian clay tablet dating to around 2800 B.C. bears the inscription: “Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.”
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/69901492.html#%23ixzz0aAasJbUf