WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED IN 2,066 YEARS?

55 B.C. | CICERO

[Wuli]

More from one of those dastardly "dead white men". /sarc

[Jim Robinson]

SSDD.

[muawiyah]

The Romans then voted for the instatement of Consuls who would beat down enemies and conquer new lands. Remember, Britain wasn't reduced until 30 AD or thereabouts, 75 years later!

Riches rolled into Rome like a tsunami of gold.

Now that doesn't mean he was wrong, but it turned out he was narrowly focused on a single method.

[Liberty1970]

By that logic we should invade China or Saudi Arabia to save ourselves. Somehow I doubt that would work out.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the rise of imperial tyranny though, as the citizen-slaves of America crave security and the dole amidst unrest and poverty.

[truthguy]

Actually we've learned a lot. But what societies haven't learned is something remarkably simple. Societies are no better than the people comprise them. No matter what form of government a country has, if the people aren't of quality, the country will not be. This is a bitter pill for most to accept and liberals will never accept it.

Societies decline because because the ratio of problem solvers to problem makers falls below a intangible threshold. When this happens, society goes into a tailspin and it's near to impossible for it to recover. This is where the US is today. Obama's election merely confirms this.

[smokingfrog]

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.

[muawiyah]

Invade China?

Why would you do that? China's a net loss ~ as every invader soon discovers. There are lot of people there, with great demands for food and stuff.

But Saudi? They've got oil. Actually, the reports are Iraq has even more oil. I think since we are already there we should stay there and start pumping.

[DCBryan1]

Cicero PING!

[Jim Robinson]

Nero fiddled while Rome burned; Obama golfs as America burns.

[Sherman Logan]

Actual quote from Cicero: “The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.”

The various additions and modifications floating around on the interwebs are phony. Although there is a real good chance Cicero would have agreed with many if not all of them.

[org.whodat]

There is only one thing wrong with this, that is it is one of those Internet lies. Not said by the man in 55 BC.

[org.whodat]

Damn, beat me by 3 seconds.

[Vigilanteman]

No matter what form of government a country has, if the people aren't of quality, the country will not be. This is a bitter pill for most to accept and liberals will never accept it. Societies decline because because the ratio of problem solvers to problem makers falls below a intangible threshold.

Absolutely correct. This is why a liberal should be trusted with a position of authority no greater than a college professor or ambassador to Krapistan, IOW, the theoretical world where their cockamamie theories actually work . . . at least in their imagination.

[TheOldLady]

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[Sherman Logan]

To be fair, the wisdom of a statement is not inherently dependent on who says it. Truth is truth and lies are lies regardless of the source.

Although reasonable people take the source into consideration.

[Razzz42]

You guys should read Martin Armstrong more, he puts history on a time-line or cycle chart. Greed, power, deception, destruction occurs on a regular basis.

http://armstrongeconomics.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/armstrongeconomics-other-side-of-inflation-041111.pdf

[Sherman Logan]

Actual source for most of the verbiage is a 50s historical novel about Cicero.

Who, BTW, was not entirely an admirable character. Set new standards in thinking highly of himself, even for a Roman aristocrat, which took some doing.

But admirable characters were thin on the ground at the time, at least in public life, and tended to not last long.

[jnsun]

No matter what form of government a country has, if the people aren't of quality, the country will not be. ...

...This is where the US is today. Obama's election merely confirms this.

About eighty percent of the US Senators do also.

The disturbing thing is that this has truly changed ("hope and change") in the US over the last fifty years. It is virtually impossible to describe that to the newer generations, vis-a-vis historical revisionism, distortion, academic pedantry; other than to personally live one's values.

[Night Hides Not]

I want to see Caesar’s birth certificate!!!

[AmusedBystander]

I want to see Caesar’s birth certificate!!!

Is Trump our Brutus?