I thought this was so fascinating from Glenn Beck that I had to share it with you!

Have you heard about the 7 stages of an Empire?

There are many similar frameworks out there, but perhaps the most popular trusted one comes from Sir John Glubb (also known as Glubb Pasha), a British historian who analyzed the rise and fall of empires and suggested a common pattern.

I first heard about this today from Glenn Beck and my mind was blown at how accurately it tracks the United States.

The really bad news?

Almost none last longer than 250 years before declining.

Glubb studied 11 empires over 3,000 years and concluded most lasted around 250 years before declining.

The even worse news?

1776 + 250 = 2026

Here are the 7 stages of an empire:

The 7 Stages of a Declining Nation (adapted from Sir John Glubb’s model):

The Age of Pioneers (Outburst)

A small, driven group establishes the foundation of a new nation or empire.

Marked by courage, conquest, exploration, and innovation.

Sacrifice and unity are common values.

The Age of Conquests

Rapid expansion and dominance over neighboring regions.

Strong military and political leadership.

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The nation becomes a powerful force in the world.

The Age of Commerce

Prosperity increases through trade and infrastructure.

Cultural development and economic strength surge.

Wealth begins to accumulate among citizens and elites.

The Age of Affluence

Focus shifts from building to enjoying the fruits of success.

Luxury, materialism, and comfort dominate the culture.

Social and moral values begin to erode.

The Age of Intellect

Intellectualism and criticism of traditional values flourish.

Debate and education become dominant, but often detached from action.

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The society becomes skeptical of its own origins and heroes.

The Age of Decadence

Decline in civic virtue, responsibility, and national identity.

Corruption, entitlement, weakening institutions, and internal division.

Immigration surges, often without assimilation.

A loss of will to defend the civilization’s values or borders.

The Age of Decline and Collapse

The empire or nation becomes vulnerable to external threats or internal collapse.

Infrastructure, economy, and military fall into disrepair.

Ultimately, the civilization is overtaken, destroyed, or absorbed.

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Now you have to see/hear how this compares to the USA, because it’s uncanny.

Watch this short clip I pulled together with all the key parts:

GLENN BECK: The 7 stages of an empire in decline

(Warning: USA is in Stage 7!!) pic.twitter.com/2SdRIW1jUB

— Noah Christopher (@DailyNoahNews) May 19, 2025

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Glenn Beck

Okay. So Sir John Glubb, he wrote something called The Fate of Empires. And others have added to this now, and I’ll show you some of the examples.

But the first stage of an empire is the Age of Pioneers. It’s an outburst and expansion.

Here’s the legs of the Age of Pioneers: driven by vision, courage, hard work, often religious or moral conviction.

Is that what started us? Is that how it happened in America? Vision, courage, hard work, religious or moral conviction?

Example: the Rome’s Republic era. America, 1776 to 1820.

And the values of that — sacrifice, virtue, risk, and independence.

Then comes the Age of Conquest — strength and expansion.

This is the era beginning in America around 1820. I think by 1830, the Republic is no longer recognizable to our founders.

Here’s the second stage of an empire. And this is Rome’s early empire and the Civil War, you know, pre-Civil War.

It’s military or economic conquests. Consolidate territory, consolidate influence. Civil institutions are built, education spreads, infrastructure grows.

Third: the Age of Commerce. Wealth. Complexity. Economic strength becomes dominant. Luxury increases. Business elites rise. Trades and speculation eclipse risk-taking pioneers.

The examples: Venice. The Netherlands. British Empire in the 1800s. U.S. post-World War II.

And the values are profit, efficiency, and comfort.

So this is us after World War II up until maybe — maybe the 1980s.

And that’s the Age of Affluence. Leisure and decay begins.

So this is the beginning of the downfall.

Stage 4: material wealth explodes. Government growth accelerates. You saw that. That—did that happen to us?

Citizens grow dependent on the system. Virtue gives way to entitlement. Education becomes secular and critical of founding ideals.

This is what happened in the second century of Rome and also between 1980 and 2010.

The values: comfort, consumption, and cynicism.

Now we go into the two final stages of an empire.

And the last time I gave this, I said I think we’re in the fifth stage — ’cause we had some of it, but we didn’t have all of it.

I believe all of these boxes are checked, which puts us in the final stage — the sixth or seventh stage of the fall of an empire.

The rise and fall — last stage. And there’s only two things that have to happen because the Republic, historically, is so weak.

Only two things have to happen. What are those two things?

Well, I’ll give you a hint. One of them is absolutely gonna happen at any time.

The other one is up to us.

You feel powerless over the situation. You won’t. You won’t.

Stand by — we’ll give it to you in just a sec.

All of the lies that have been told — who believes anymore that the traditional media is telling you the truth on anything?

Who believes that, uh, you know, the media didn’t know about Joe Biden?

Who believes that Joe Biden’s cancer is a new subject?

Now that one’s hard, because that very well could be brand new.

But it also — because we don’t believe in so many other things — it might have been known when he was still in the White House.

We don’t know. But do you believe it?

I’m not asking you what you know. I’m asking you what you believe.

Then Kash Patel comes out, along with Dan Bongino — two very credible people on our side, on Donald Trump’s handpicked inside team.

And they say the Epstein suicide was a suicide.

And my first response was “Mm-mm.” And then I immediately went, “But it’s coming from these guys. I believe these guys. I know these guys.”

And so then I started getting into critical thinking. “Okay, what would it take for me to believe them?”

And they just have to show us what they saw, because that’s a role reversal. They’ve switched.

They said it wasn’t a suicide. Now all I need to know is: what did you see? And show it to me.

Why is this important — to use critical thinking?

We just went through four of the seven stages of — it’s called the 7-stage cycle of civilizational collapse.

First: the Age of Pioneers. That’s the Revolutionary War.

Then the Age of Conquest — that’s, you know, the expansion out West.

The Age of Commerce — that is really the 20th century, early 20th century.

The Age of Affluence — beginning around the Reagan years, where the decay begins and it becomes about leisure and stuff.

Then fifth —

And this is where, the last time I read this, I thought we were here — and maybe a little in the sixth, maybe —

The Age of Intellect: elite rule and fragmentation.

Experts and technocrats dominate. Reason replaces faith. Society becomes obsessed with process, bureaucracy, identity, and division.

People grow disconnected from elites. Populist backlash begins.

This is France pre-1789. Weimar Germany in the 1920s. And the U.S. post-2000.

The values: relativism, narcissism, hypereducation with moral void.

So: technocrats dominate? Yes.

Reason replaces faith? Yes.

Society becomes obsessed with process? Yes.

Bureaucracy? Yes.

Identity? Absolutely.

And division? The people grow disconnected from elites? Yes.

Populist backlash begins? 2016? Yes.

Then you get into the sixth stage: The Age of Decadence — moral decline and decline of courage.

Tell me if you can’t check every box on this one.

National identity collapses? Hmm. M—almost there, almost.

Immigration without assimilation? Yes.

Public debt surges? Yes.

Breads and circuses replace responsibility? Yes.

Political corruption is normalized? Yes.

Gender confusion? Yes.

Family disintegration? Yes.

Loss of fertility? Yes.

The use of drugs? Yes.

Hedonism dominates? Yes.

That’s Rome — the third through the fifth century.

And is this us today?

The values: hedonism, nihilism, and entitlement.

I think yes, yes, and yes.

Then you get into the last phase.

Would you agree, Stu, that we’ve hit everything else in that?

Yeah, we’re—we’re here.

At some degree or another, we’ve hit all of those.

Okay. The Age of Decline and Collapse/Disintegration.

There’s only two things.

Number one: internal distrust, factionalism, and scapegoating.

That’s the first.

All of that is where we are today with those stories.

Internal distrust: “I don’t trust anything. Do you?”

Factionalism? Hello MAGA. And the what? Anti-MAGA.

You’re either a racist or an anti-racist.

And scapegoating? “I don’t know, uh, Jake Tapper, how’s your book going?”

I think we’re there.

The last thing to happen: currency collapse, loss of external power, or invasion.

With Donald Trump in power, I don’t think we’re gonna lose the external power or invasion — unless our currency collapses.

And our currency collapse could happen.

Nobody — did you see they downgraded us yet again, Stu?

You remember 2008?

I’m saying in 2006, 2007, “We will lose our triple-A-plus status. They will downgrade us.”

The quote was “Never” — from every institution in America.

“Never. It will never happen. Ever ever ever ever ever. It will never ever happen.”

Well, it happened in like 2009. Then it happened again in like ’12 and ’16. And they just did it again.

So currency collapse is on the board.

Values of this era: despair, tribalism, and the choice between authoritarianism or anarchy.

We’re there.

Okay, so I don’t tell you this to bum you out.

I tell you this because there is something you can do.

That’s why I started today’s show with those questions.

We must — I believe this is a national emergency.

And I believe Donald Trump should declare our trust in these institutions a national emergency.

We must be transparent.

This is why I said I want Kash and I want Dan Bongino to show the American people what changed their minds.

I would love a hearing on it — and not some big drawn-out, you know, hearing in Congress with a bunch of—

I just wanna see. I wanna see the files.

Because internal distrust is a choice.

Because if you’re saying today, “I don’t believe Dan Bongino and Kash Patel,” I’m stuck.

Because I do believe them.

I just — I think I don’t have enough information to go with them on this.

I believe in them. But I also believe that Epstein killed himself—

Sorry, my throat was killing me.

I just like the fact that you crunched the ice as you took the sip.

Yeah.

Um, I ju— I—I believe them. I just believe also that Epstein killed himself— that he didn’t hang himself with a paper sheet.

Those two don’t match.

When something doesn’t match, you have to go back and say, “Which one do you actually think is right?”

I can’t — because I don’t have enough information.

But I must do that. Because trust and distrust at this point is a choice.

Now let me show you where distrust leads.

If you don’t trust Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, then you can’t trust the FBI and the DOJ and anything that they’re doing there.

That’s pretty bad — because we just had the biggest reformer of all time, a guy who said he would reform those two institutions, that he would be transparent, and he hired these two guys — and we all cheered for those two guys.

So if you don’t trust them — if you just immediately go “Uh, something’s wrong, I don’t trust them,” without saying, “Here, I don’t trust that that is true, but I wanna see what changed their mind,”

Then your next step is “Well, does Donald Trump know? And if he doesn’t do something about them on something this egregious — they’re clearly covering something up — then I got a problem with Donald Trump.”

Where does this end?

This ends in—this ends in guillotines in France.

This is what happens. “You betrayed the revolution.” “No I didn’t. That’s just not true.”

So the good news is this is—this is up to you.

These things can be reversed. They just haven’t been. But they can be reversed.

For instance: why would our currency collapse?

Because we’re being downgraded.

Why are we being downgraded?

Because we’re spending too much.

Why are we spending too much?

Because the people in Washington won’t listen to the American people. They have no courage.

Back to stage 6: decline of courage.

That means we need more people who have courage — that will say, “This is the end of the Republic if we don’t do certain things.”

So where will you stand today?

Will you dedicate yourself to not changing what you believe, per se —

but at least demanding critical thinking answers for good critical thinking questions?

Glenn believes we’re in Stage 7 and potentially late-stage 7.

I completely agree.

In fact, we appear to currently be checking every single box, and the “currency collapse” I believe it not just “coming” but already in process and most people just don’t know it yet.

Want to see it in one chart?

A picture is worth a thousand words — here’s a visual representation of the crash of the value (think purchasing power) of the US Dollar since 1910:

In other words, if you held $1.00 from 1910 until 2025, you would only have the equivalent of 1.6 cents left!

Inflation would have eaten away 98.4 cents of every dollar you “saved”.

Horrible!

That’s a currency in decline, and the final crash will be swift and epic.

And I believe already is in progress.

If you want to see Glenn’s entire show from today, where I pulled that clip from, you can watch it here:

And did someone say Currency Crash?

I told you it’s already in process….

This is just from three days ago:

BREAKING: Moody’s Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating From AAA to AA1

BREAKING: Moody's Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating From AAA to AA1

Even if you're not into finance, you probably know the name Moody's, one of the most established credit rating agencies alongside the S&P and Fitch.

And until this very day, May 16, 2025, Moody's has NEVER rated U.S. Credit lower than a AAA rating.

Today that all changed, as Moody's dropped the U.S. rating to AA1 for the first time ever.

NEW: Moody's downgrades U.S. credit rating from Aaa to Aa1, citing the budgetary burden the government faces amid high interest rates. https://t.co/pdYbLi0laL

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This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.

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