Posted on 03/19/2018 5:36:17 AM PDT by C19fan
‘ARE WE ROME?” asked the author Cullen Murphy a decade ago, in a provocatively titled book that compared the 21st-century United States with the final days of the Roman Empire. Lately there’s been no shortage of Cassandras who emphatically answer yes.
“The speed with which we’re recapitulating the decline and fall of Rome is impressive,” opined the conservative commentator Bill Kristol, in a tweet this past July, taking issue with President Trump’s treatment of the press. “What took Rome centuries we’re achieving in months.” And the Cornell historian Barry Strauss bemoaned the parallels between alleged American failings and those of ancients in an online column for Fox News in October 2016: “Just think about what Rome had and what we have. Morals out of a bacchanalia? Check. Abuse of public office for private purposes? Check … Oh the times, oh the customs! Where is Cicero when we need him?”
(Excerpt) Read more at undark.org ...
“Historians have long neglected the role of these actors — germs and climate — in bringing down Rome,”
And crystal ball gazers making comparisons between Rome and today IGNORE the scientific and technological advancements human society has made, which collectively make human capabilities today better poised to overcome the natural disasters that helped Rome’s decline.
The political and moral similarities however are another matter.
And just because Gibbon forgot to mention it doesn't mean it didn't happen!
Except those weren’t the cause. You’d have to be pretty blind to Roman history not to know it was in large part immigration and mass migration.
I would disagree.
I think the Roman Empire disintegrated as a cohesive unit because of uncontrolled migrations of people who would not assimilate. The laws, the culture, the political administration could not handle the influx of outsiders who held on to their barbarian ways.
Sound familiar
BINGO, WE HAVE A WINNER.
ALMOST. An influx of immigrants would bring new diseases and pestilence.
Nope. The empire expande so (”to reign entanglements”) that they ran out of pure sons of the Empire to fight for what they believed in. Rome had to hire mercenaries with no loyalty to Rome beyond the next paycheck. Too many foreigners getting a check from the empire, who cared NOTHING for the values and history of the nation. Sound familiar?
You are correct.
Agreed, and they ran out of pure sons of the Empire because of abortion and homosexuality.
Women did not want to lose their looks from children and men wanted little boys or multiple women. But no one wanted children. The book “Caesar and Christ” really goes into detail on that part of the equation.
Same garbage floated when Barbara Tuchman
Released “A Distant Mirror” an eon ago .. It’s all
Just hubris to fill news space ...
You mean I’m wrong that chariots didn’t destroy the ozone?! Quel surprize.
The Roman Empire fell for the same reason the Spanish, British and Soviet Empires fell, and for the same reason ours will fail. It’s why all empires or societies are bound to fail. People simply stop believing in them. Over time, contradictions arise that can no longer be resolved through the belief in a common identity or system of government. These contradictions are inherent in any economic, moral, social, and military establishment. This is what History is all about
One of the often over looked reasons Rome fell was poltical factions were frequently more interested in stabbing their political opposition in the back then fighting the enemies of the Empire.
Sound familiar?
An excellent case has been made that the key was when Rome conscripted foreigners to do all of the jobs that they did not want to do or did not have the people to do. IOW, they imported illegal aliens. Sound Familiar? They had expanded so far that they could no longer staff all of the needs of the Empire.
The “Climate Of Stupidity & Weakness” is bringing the American Republic down. And “conservatives” like Bill Kristol, Marco Rubio, Linda Grahamnesty, Jeff Flake, Paul Ryan, and John McCain are Exhibit A.
Is there any similarity between this and the US selling so many government bonds to foreign countries? Maybe not in kind, but in result as it is leaving us open to financial ruin.
"The speed with which we're recapitulating the decline and fall of Rome is impressive," opined the conservative commentator Bill Kristol, in a tweet this past July, taking issue with President Trump's treatment of the press.
That's an interesting opinion, considering ROME HAD NO PRESS. Another phony-baloney analogy between the Roman Empire and the US falls flat on its ass. Thanks C19fan.
and this - Antonine's wall
In the end, ,they lost at home. Sound familiar?
And yet the Byzantine Empire lasted 1,000 years after Rome fell.
‘Explanations of “Why Rome fell” are as numerous as explanations of the cause of the American Civil War.’
anyone reading this forum would know that there was only one reason for the Civil War; Lincoln was skulking about, asphyxiating 300,000 Southerners as they lay sleeping in their warms beds...
I thought it was the Russians.
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