Are We Going the Way of Rome?

Mackinac Center for Public Policy ^ | 9/1/01 | Lawrence Reed

[Cboldt]

I can pen any animal on the face of the earth if I can first get him to depend on me for a free handout! ...

Humans are especially easy to pen that way. Humans succumb to a siren's song.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Good post. Excuse me while I pull my hair out :-(

[happydogdesign]

Rome's decline has far more to do with disease than moral turpitude. Malaria was endemic, small pox was making its presence known, and the first major wave of bubonic plague during the reign of Justinian cut through most of civilization like a scythe at a point when an understanding of disease pathology was just beginning.

It is always popular to blame the woes of past cultures on moral weakness, but the facts are most of our ancestors had to be pretty tough, lucky, and smart to live long enough to reproduce at all.

[Cacophonous]

Another parallel to consider. Rome defeated Carthage, the other "superpower" of the day while maintaining her superiority, but was brought down by the less-civilized rabble - not nations, per se - in the north and west, essentially through guerilla warfare. In much the same manner, the US has defeated her major enemies and now remains the world's only superpower. And we are now engaged in a war with less-civilized groups - not nations - practicing a form of guerilla warfare (terrorism).

I hope the US profits from Rome's example. It's not the wars against clearly defined opponents, with clearly defined goals that establish clear victory, but the murky, guerilla-style where noone knows when victory is achieved, where warfare is a perpetual, draining thing, that will defeat us.

[A. Pole]

All this disappeared, however, by the fifth century ad, and when it was gone, Europe was plunged into darkness and despair, slavery and poverty.

It is more complicated than that. Arian Germanic tribes (followers of the heresy of Arius) conquered the Western part of Rome. Eastern part was destroyed by Muslims many centuries later.

[SmallGuerillaReactionaryArmy]

good article

welfare simply doesnt work when you expand it to every bum who is too lazy to get a job...

[Number_Cruncher]

Many of the so-called barbarians were actually Roman citizens who had fled the empire to escape its high tax burdens. I recommend the book For Good and Evil by Adams on how taxes destroy civilizations.

[Viking2002]

Excellent artice, and backing up my longtime belief that we ARE going the way of Rome, with no means of salvation in sight. Politicans are too blind and/or greedy and/or unintelligent and/or self-absorbed to learn from history. The price they will pay at the hands of the masses will be to little, too late as the cities burn.

[highlander_UW]

Excellent artice, and backing up my longtime belief that we ARE going the way of Rome, with no means of salvation in sight. Politic ans are too blind and/or greedy and/or unintelligent and/or self-absorbed to learn from history. The price they will pay at the hands of the masses will be to little, too late as the cities burn.

It's that they've got so many Americans addicted to that feeder bar of government support. We're in real danger of losing our connection to basic hard work and personal responsibility. How many steps removed are most of us from our basic supports such as food for instance?

[Eternal_Bear]

The Roman empire fell but Roman culture lives on. It passed on Christianity, law, literature, centralized government, high taxation, imperial wars, public games staged in coloseums, welfare state and much more. Hey isn't that a Roman Goddess on top of the Capital dome? We celebrate our independence day in the month named in honor of the Roman god Julius Caesar. Governments come and go; culture lives on forever.

[DeathAngel]

About the best post in a year on this site. A true historical past that is our near future. We plunder each other, corrupt our morals and ethics, and demand everything for ourselves while providing little to the nation.

At some point, someone may enter our world, and we won't care that they have come.

America: RIP.

[Semper]

there are very promising indications that the intellectual battles these days are being won-often decisively won-by the friends of freedom and limited government, not by those who foolishly seek to put government in the driver's seat.

Right. I will be optimistic as soon as the national debt starts to decline.

[Gunslingr3]

ping

[neverdem]

Interesting read. I'll recommend it.

[highlander_UW]

Right. I will be optimistic as soon as the national debt starts to decline.

While I agree that the author tried a bit too much to put a happy face on our prospects I am not so concerned about our national debt as many other factors. If we worked on the spending side as well as growth the debt would be a thing of the past. But our politicians never seem to see a pork project they don't love. If we, as Americans, made a real fuss about spending and refused to vote for politic ans that point to the pork they've brought to our states things might have a chance to be rosier.

[neverdem]

Interesting and good. Takes ~.5 hour

[SkyRat]

First time I hear that.

I'm only a amateur, my knowledge of the fall and decline of Rome is small. Yet the little I know fits quite nicely within the original post of this thread.

Do you have any sources for your statment? I'm very interessted to learn more.

Regards
SkyRat

[.cnI redruM]

Not bad. It reminds me of the Walter Williams analogy on how you cook a frog.

[FreedomCalls]

Hey isn't that a Roman Goddess on top of the Capital dome?

Isn't that a Roman-style "Senate" underneath that dome as well?