Glenn Beck, National Decline And The Story Of The Roman Empire

Townhall.com ^ | April 28, 2012 | Jerry Bowyer

[svcw]

None of Beck’s predictions panned out.........

[SuzyQue]

Yes, but the more important point, at least, is that, following the Roman model, we will continue the inexorable downward slide, each new generation only somewhat aware of the losses of the last.

[hinckley buzzard]

The point is a good one. Predictions of imminent collapse based on "the fall of Rome" ignore that such a collapse may take centuries, as did the fall of the Roman Empire.

[faucetman]

As one famous intellectual said “Managing the decay”

[SuzyQue]

Yep. We can slow it, but I don’t think we can stop it now.

[GBA]

Beck admits his predictions come true, but his timing is usually off a bit. Take what he says seriously. Beck is one of Paul Revere’s riders, no doubt about it. He’s the one on the white horse.

[netmilsmom]

His prediction that the OWS movement wouldn’t go away, panned out.
His prediction that racial violence would uptick, panned out.

Doom and gloom sells.
But not everything he says is wrong.

[lurk]

Glenn is very much influenced by Cleon Skousen.

Every great nation dies eventually. Some go overnight, like the Babylonians, and some go through a long sigh, like Rome.

God’s in charge. Isa. 40.

[Nowhere Man]

Yes, but the more important point, at least, is that, following the Roman model, we will continue the inexorable downward slide, each new generation only somewhat aware of the losses of the last.

Everytime I look up at the Moon, I say to myself, "we put men up there and I remember seeing that when I was a small child." I'll be 46 in July. I often wonder when I'm an old an and point to the Moon and telling the children then, "yes, there was a time when we were able to put men on the Moon unlike now."

There is already a generation of adults out there that have never seen a man walk on the Moon live on TV. You'd have to be over 40 to remember seeing that. Shame, really. B-(

[Thidwick]

Many up-and-coming dictators have managed to oppress the population in just a few short years. Keeping our currency under communism is not so comforting.

[svcw]

I was just quoting the article.

[netmilsmom]

Oh! Sorry, I didn’t realize. My apologizes.

[hinckley buzzard]

Rome actually had its own significant renaissance in the 6th century under Justinian the Great. He sough to revive the old empire and succeeded in recapturing North Africa, Italy, Sicily and southern Spain, re-establishing Roman control of the "Mare Nostrum" from the Atlantic ocean to the eastern shore of the Black Sea where they had not been before.

He revitalized the economy with an austerity program, reformed Roman law and standardized it with the "Justinian Code" which became a foundation for much of western civil law thereafter. He was a true Roman, who spoke Latin as his native tongue, the last ruler to do so. He rejoined the west with the Byzantine empire, launching a golden age of Byzantium.

The renewed empire became prosperous and strong but was stymied in the end by a crippling epidemic of bubonic plague. And, as always with the Romans, when he died there was no clear preparation for succession.

Will America produce a Justinian renewal? She certainly could.

[hinckley buzzard]

Rome actually had its own significant renaissance in the 6th century under Justinian the Great. He sought to revive the old empire and succeeded in recapturing North Africa, Italy, Sicily and southern Spain, re-establishing Roman control of the "Mare Nostrum" from the Atlantic ocean to the eastern shore of the Black Sea where they had not been before.

He revitalized the economy with an austerity program, reformed Roman law and standardized it with the "Justinian Code" which became a foundation for much of western civil law thereafter. He was a true Roman, who spoke Latin as his native tongue, the last ruler to do so. He rejoined the west with the Byzantine empire, launching a golden age of Byzantium.

The renewed empire became prosperous and strong but was stymied in the end by a crippling epidemic of bubonic plague. And, as always with the Romans, when he died there was no clear preparation for succession.

Will America produce a Justinian renewal? She certainly could.

[muawiyah]

We finally put an end to the Empire Rome started about 1919 with the dismantlement of the Ottoman Empire.

There are still some legal problems ~

[oldbrowser]

But Rome didn’t actually ‘fall’ in a definitive sense until 498 years after the death of Cicero and 499 years until after the death of Cato.

In Roman days they walked or rode donkeys. Now we have instantaneous communications around the world and are testing an airplane that goes 13,000 miles per hour.

Everything is moving a lot faster and I expect our decline will be faster. I'm guessing a couple of generations, especially if we keep electing people like we currently have in office.

[atomic_dog]

The Romans continued to use a medium of exchange with some, however small and decreasing, intrinsic value that acted as a brake however ineffective it ultimately was. The Romans never imagined such things as credit default swaps (CDS), high frequency trading (HFT) or commodities exchanges that enable the manipulation of prices up and down. They also never had the ability to conjure circulating currency out of thin air.

The economic mess is Euroland has not sunk to the level I expected by now. They have an amazing variety of tricks propping it up, foremost among them the willingness to lie completely and absolutely about what is going on. Eventually the whole house of cards is going to collapse and it will probably happen here in as little as three days. The average uninformed American will probably describe it as "all the money just vanished into thin air."

[Oatka]

Everything is moving a lot faster and I expect our decline will be faster.

That's my take on it as well. It MAY take longer than I'll live, but just in case . . .

[Molon Labbie]

I think the US, and perhaps other Western nations as well are done. We have too many countervailing cultures, many diametrically (and violently) opposed to each other to continue on in our current configuration.

How can you have peace and prosperity under such Tower of Babel conditions?

Glenn Beck may not be right on all his predictions but he is not afraid to call the adversary, the adversary. He inspires vigilance instead of Dancing With The Stars stupor and apathy.

Frankly, the truly engaged and thoughtful do not need Glenn Beck to reaffirm their suspicions as to our eventual fate. It is helpful to have a national voice to rouse those who are sleeping.