Posted on 10/12/2008 4:50:22 PM PDT by NCjim
With modernity crumbling, our thoughts turn to antiquity.
The decline and fall of the American Empire echoes the experience of the Romans, who also tumbled into the trap of becoming overleveraged empire hussies.
As our sand-castle economy washes away under the tide of bad gambles and debts, this most self-indulgent society lurches toward stoicism (even bankrupt Iceland gives us the cold shoulder and turns to a solvent superpower). It’s going to require more than giving up constant infusions of stocks, Starbucks and Botox.
As Seneca, the Roman Stoic who advised treating the body “somewhat strictly,” wrote in a letter: “Avoid whatever is approved of by the mob, and things that are the gift of chance. Whenever circumstance brings some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm ...They are snares. ... we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Obey the rules! NOW!
Dowd. Waste of time.
This woman has confirmed her place in the parade of idiots.
Pundits needc to retire BEFORE it becomes obvious
We have the Government passing out cheap money (mortgages) to the masses to gain their quiesence, we have one political faction who controls the corrupt process to acheive their political ends, while leaders of that faction are having openly homosexual affairs with members of the Government entity handing out these goodies.
It certainly sounds like Rome to me.
Oh God, there’s nothing more irritating than a media elitist pretending to inform the hoi polloi with references to ancient Rome.
Especially from this wretch, Maureen “Hate Everybody” O’Dowd.
Wanna look at history? Try more the Athens at its height: an empire yet exporting democracy everywhere, with another power (Sparta) just waiting to strike.
I wonder if columnists (how easy a job is that?) think they’re IQ points go up when they use the phrase “are we Rome?” in their scribblings.
To Ioannes McCainus and Sara Palina:
Illigitimi non carborundum est.
Thank You!
one of my favorite “Latin” phrases...:)
If we are talking Romans, Down reminds me of Agrippinila (Agrippina the Younger): Granddaughter of Marcus Agrippa (Augustus’s general and colleague), Daughter of Germanicus the hero, sister and lover of the Emperor Caligula, wife of the Emperor Claudius, and mother of the Emperor Nero, her murderer.
No mention of Doddus Gassbagius and Barney Buttslammicus?
What did Michael Douglas ever do to deserve this!
Hehehe ...Don’t let the mofos grind you down !
You are, Slimes. Me? Spartan all the way. Well-trained. Unflinching. Have read my enemy well, and will look him in the eye when fightin’ him.
Gladly.
I’d really start worrying about the decline when people stop making such statements. :)
Didn’t notice that this was by old Dowdy until I started reading it.
I’ll quit gagging in a little while.
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