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Life Among the Ruins
American Greatness ^ | 5 Mar, 2023 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 03/06/2023 4:28:22 AM PST by MtnClimber

The few sowed the wind, and the many reaped their whirlwind.

American society is facing three existential crises not unlike those that overcame the late Roman, and a millennium later, terminal Byzantine, empires.

Premodern Barbarism

We are suffering an epidemic of premodern barbarism. The signs unfortunately appear everywhere. Over half a million homeless people crowd our big-city downtowns.

Most know the result of such Medieval street living is unhealthy, violent, and lethal for all concerned. Yet no one knows—or even seems to worry about—how to stop it.

So public defecation, urination, fornication, and injection continue unabated. Progressive urban pedestrians pass by holding their noses, averting their gazes, and accelerating the pace of their walking. The greenest generation in history allows its sidewalks to become pre-civilizational sewers. In a very brief time, we all but have destroyed the downtowns of our major cities—which will increasingly become vacant in a manner like the 6th-century A.D. Roman forum.

All accept that defunding the police, no-cash bail, Soros-funded district attorneys, and radical changes in jurisprudence have destroyed deterrence. The only dividend is the unleashing of a criminal class to smash-and-grab, carjack, steal, burglarize, execute, and assault—with de facto immunity. Instead we are sometimes lectured that looting is not a crime, but lengthy incarceration is criminally immoral.

We have redefined felonies as misdemeanors warranting no punishment. Misdemeanors are now infractions that are not criminal. Infractions we treat as lifestyle choices. Normality, not criminality, is deemed criminal. We all know this will not work, but still wonder why it continues.

Many among the middle classes of our cities who can flee or move, do so—like 5th-century equestrians who left Rome for rural fortified farms before the onslaught of the Ostrogoths and Visigoths. For most of our lives we were lectured that the old southern states—Florida, Tennessee,

(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: byzantineempire; falseanalogy; godsgravesglyphs; leftism; romanempire; vdh; victordavishanson
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To: MtnClimber

Yes. Rome collapsed because it relied on a mercenary army, slave economy and could no longer feed itself. Raging inflation decimated the economy. Defenseless Rome collapsed when migrating hordes swept over the border seeking plunder, rape and ruin.


21 posted on 03/06/2023 6:35:23 AM PST by DeplorablePaul (s)
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To: DeplorablePaul

History may not repeat, but it sure does rhyme.


22 posted on 03/06/2023 6:39:26 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Ronaldus Magnus III

A dispassionate reality of life: This action must be taken — deliberately and with strong determination and fearlessness — wherever and whenever the criminal bums appear lest the civil society be destroyed.


23 posted on 03/06/2023 6:39:59 AM PST by glennaro (Never give up ... never give in ... never surrender ... and enjoy every minute of doing so.)
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To: MtnClimber

And a few days ago the moon, Venus, and Jupiter were in alignment. Same as foretold the fall of Rome, and not seen since. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.


24 posted on 03/06/2023 6:49:32 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: MtnClimber

We are so screwed, that’s the reason a typical GOP politician is simply not enough. We need bold changes. The kind typical politicians are anathema to.


25 posted on 03/06/2023 6:55:44 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: MtnClimber

Nations hostile to The United States control the Democrat party and are using it to weaken and destroy The United States.

The Democrat party is the enemy of our country.


26 posted on 03/06/2023 7:23:18 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: odawg
No, no, no, a thousand times no; children, traditionally and historically, have NEVER, EVER, been confused about gender. You have drunk the kool aid.

YOUR world is not the whole world. Stop being narrow. Listen to Jordan Peterson and he will tell you that in psychology it is well documented that girls have more gender issues than boys traditionally for over 100 years. They both typically grow out of it by the time they reach 18, but some need to talk about it.

With today's social media and children living on it, the whole gender, appearance and social constructs are more confusing than ever.

Leaving these children with no guidance or handing them over to the genital mutilators is equally evil.

27 posted on 03/06/2023 8:05:28 AM PST by Erik Latranyi (Make America Florida)
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To: MtnClimber
VDH is always a great read and this is one of his best. It is pretty much inclusive of the various ongoing subversive movements to decimate and destroy our American Republic.The democrat party has destroyed whatever legitimacy they had as representing the American public. They are riddled with, and controlled by, foreign interests and homegrown American low life traitors. The Republican party is under assault to go the same way but still has a short time to salvage the America that has always been the refuge of the huddled masses yearning to be free, etc. Every time I think that this current commie democrat govt can sink no lower, they do. They spoil and destroy with abandon and it will require a strong President and strong elected representatives in high govt offices to make any headway in rooting the traitors out of any govt power.
28 posted on 03/06/2023 8:16:13 AM PST by mountainfolk
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To: MtnClimber

“Most know the result of such Medieval street living is unhealthy, violent, and lethal for all concerned. Yet no one knows—or even seems to worry about—how to stop it.”

What % of Medieval street living people were obese? What % would refuse food and shelter if it was offered to them? This is a gigantic difference between our present-day street people and those of the far past. Our societal conditions are truly unique in all of history.

Freegards


29 posted on 03/06/2023 8:22:22 AM PST by Ransomed
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To: MtnClimber
What does a people do when its highest officials simply renounce their oaths of office and refuse to enforce laws they don’t like?

Well, that's the million dollar question - isn't it?

30 posted on 03/06/2023 10:09:38 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Erik Latranyi

“With today’s social media and children living on it, the whole gender, appearance and social constructs are more confusing than ever.”

You need to let go of the confusion angle. What can be confusing for a person to look between their legs and see what is obviously there?

It is called the power of suggestion, suggestions made by ghouls and amplified on social media and the demonic schools. Suggestion is what makes advertising so powerful. And you won’t have to look too hard to find psychologists admit that the hard promotion of it is the motivation behind all of the stupidity.

Gender confusion has never entered the domain of literature, cultural awareness, etc. There have always been “tomboys” because energetic young girls like to be around boys.


31 posted on 03/06/2023 1:30:45 PM PST by odawg
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To: Alberta's Child; Alouette; Aria; BatGuano; beaversmom; bigfootbob; Brian Griffin; Cathi; cgk; ...
Ping! Out to the Victor Davis Hanson list

For most of our lives we were lectured that the old southern states—Florida, Tennessee, Texas—were backward and uninviting. Now even liberals often flee to them, leaving behind supposedly cosmopolitan Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore, and New York. The more people leave the blue states, the more those states praise themselves as utopian.

The elite who caused this premodern catastrophe assumes they will always have the money and wherewithal to ensure that themselves and their own can navigate around or even profit from the barbarism they unleashed. For them the critic, not the target of criticism, is the greater threat.

A mere 10 years ago, if an American learned that a man was arrested for clubbing, robbing, or shooting innocents, and yet would be released from custody that day of his crime, he would have thought it an obscenity. Now he fears that often the criminal will not even be arrested.

Folks, the entire article is worthy of a slow read. Please, enjoy the whole article. And then ponder how insane are his conclusions, especially for those of us who remember a different way.

At some point, the adults will need to take over.

FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR

Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall

American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness

His website: Victor Davis Hanson

Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.

As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.

Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience.

32 posted on 03/07/2023 3:57:58 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: mountainfolk; rlmorel
Now the children come last and the performers first—as ratified by the same liberals. But to fathom the new transitioning, simply learn from ancient transitioning and gender dysphoria, an unhappy classical theme from Catullus’ Attis poem (stimulatus ibi furenti rabie, vagus/ devolsit ili acuto sibi pondera silice/ itaque ut relicta sensit sibi membra sine viro) to Giton in Petronius’ Satyricon.

Attis to Giton:

Stimulated there by a raging rage, the wanderer/ threw down upon him the sharp weight of flint/ and so he felt as if his limbs were left without a man

And the leftists will not even allow Satyricon to be studied in most colleges.

33 posted on 03/07/2023 4:10:54 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: texas booster

Wow! Great article. Passing it along in email.


34 posted on 03/07/2023 4:14:36 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta ( )
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To: 1Old Pro
We are so screwed, that’s the reason a typical GOP politician is simply not enough. We need bold changes. The kind typical politicians are anathema to.

The first candidate who proclaims fentanyl as a WMD, and classifies drug cartels as terrorists, gets my vote.

35 posted on 03/07/2023 4:27:22 AM PST by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
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To: MtnClimber
This says it all:

How did all of this so quickly erode our great country? Our crisis was not the next generation of foreign Hitlers and Stalins. It was not earthquakes, floods, or even pandemics. It was not endemic poverty and want. It was not a meager inheritance from past generations of incompetents. Nor was it a dearth of natural resources or bounty.

Instead our catastrophe arose from our most highly educated, the wealthiest and most privileged in American history with the greatest sense of self-esteem and sanctimoniousness. Sometime around the millennium, they felt their genius could change human nature and bring an end to history—if only they had enough power to force hoi polloi to follow their abstract and bankrupt theories that they had no intention of abiding by themselves.

36 posted on 03/07/2023 5:06:29 AM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: Robert DeLong

Thumbs up!


37 posted on 03/07/2023 5:18:32 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: MtnClimber
The few sowed the wind, and the many reaped their whirlwind.

We have redefined felonies as misdemeanors warranting no punishment. Misdemeanors are now infractions that are not criminal. Infractions we treat as lifestyle choices. Normality, not criminality, is deemed criminal. We all know this will not work, but still wonder why it continues.

We know it's evil - we know it's happening... and we know more people are involved than just George Soros.These are psych-ops beyond our understanding. How's that possible? How is it happening and who's behind it?

38 posted on 03/07/2023 9:52:32 AM PST by GOPJ (The few sowed the wind, and the many reaped their whirlwind. - Victor Davis Hanson)
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To: MtnClimber

Note to self to read later.


39 posted on 03/08/2023 2:13:05 AM PST by NetAddicted (MAGA2024)
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To: null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; bitt; ...

P


40 posted on 03/08/2023 11:09:21 AM PST by bitt (<img src=' 'width=50%>)
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