Will America Collapse Like the Roman Empire?

[pinochet]

Some philosophers have promoted the idea that it is impossible for human beings to invent new sins. Any "new" sin that may seem shocking to you, is a sin that was practiced in ancient civilizations that have gone before us. In order for a nation or civilization to be strong, families must be strong. When families die, civilizations die along with them. I refer you to this quote from this website http://constitutionschool.com/2012/09/27/first-time-ever-majority-of-american-households-unmarried/

"For the first time, households made up of married couples with and without children dropped below 50 percent of all households, Jacobsen noted. At the peak in 1960, married couples represented 75 percent of all households."

The first great civilization to collapse was Babylon. When Babylon was at its strongest, the empire was known for strong morals and strong families, as reflected in the Code of Hammurabi, which dates to 1772 BC. Centuries later, family bonds collapsed, and Babylon became famous for sexual orgies and gay relationships. The Roman Republic and Empire passed through the same phase, starting as a strong pro-family civilization, and ending up as an empire of sexual orgies that had openly gay emperors like Caligula and Nero.

Now it is America's turn. It is too bad that America may not last over 1000 years like the Babylonian or Roman Empires.

[greene66]

Yes. America is in rapid decay. Moral, cultural, and economic decay. The country has become a pathetic shell of what it used to be. A pale shadow of its former greatness and exceptionalism.

If anything portends its demise more fully, it’s the combination of reaching the “takers overwhelming makers” threshold, and the cultural embrace of the abject degeneracy of things like homo marriage. Death-knells.

[The Louiswu]

No, it will be worse than the fall of Rome. Rome didn’t have NBC weapons that will most certainly fall into the hands of those with evil on their minds and willingness to use them to further Satan’s plans.

[Sherman Logan]

Centuries later, family bonds collapsed, and Babylon became famous for sexual orgies and gay relationships.

I have never seen any evidence to this effect, that Babylonian families deteriorated and that this caused their civilization's collapse.

My understanding of Babylonian religion is that sexual orgies including male and female temple prostitutes were prominent from the beginning.

[varyouga]

Civilization all comes down to morality, trust and respect of one another.

Everything bad in society is just a symptom of the breakdown of that moral foundation. No amount of wealth or government will change it.

Unless we change our ways very soon, we are doomed to see a repeat of Rome

[drypowder]

Just listen to the voices of the people railing against this government's socialists polices and the consistent decline of our liberty while nothing of substance is being done to stop those in government's insatiable appetite for absolute control. What you are hearing are the sounds of a defeated society.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Will America Collapse Like the Roman Empire?"

We were once the most literate nation in the world. Now our students can't crack the top ten.

We drove cars on the Moon. Now we can't even get into low earth orbit without hitching a ride with the nation we beat in the space race.

The Term "Will" does not apply being were are in the middle of the referenced "Collapse". The problem is the decline is for now, slow and stately. But that won't last and we have signs now that we are picking up speed on that final downhill run.

[CMB_polarization]

Those that would conquer us (China, Islam) are eager to see us decline. Russia, US, Europe will be the cheap labor forces of the 2030’s and beyond. I don’t want to see it happen, don’t see any way to reverse the trends. Pray, and hope we can survive to rebuild what we once had.

[jjotto]

One theory is that the behavior of relatively small numbers of elites (or even an underclass) aren’t nearly as important as the character of the civilization as a whole, which usually means what we call middle classes.

[Little Ray]

Wrong question.

The correct question is “Will America go the way of the Roman Republic?” That is about the state we’re in.

[txrefugee]

It didn’t take America as long as Rome to decline because we had television. The advent of wide-spread availability to TV correlates to most of the ills of our society.

[Sherman Logan]

The first great civilization to collapse was Babylon. When Babylon was at its strongest, the empire was known for strong morals and strong families, as reflected in the Code of Hammurabi, which dates to 1772 BC.

This reflects a drastic lack of understanding of the history involved.

The "Babylonian civilization," really Mesopotamian civilization, was more or less continuous from 1800 BC to 1200 AD, when it was destroyed by the Mongols. Different cities were the center of that civilization over time, and different groups dominated it, but there was enormous continuity. You can actually go back much earlier, perhaps to 4000 BC, if you go back into Sumerian times.

This civilization never collapsed for 1500 years. It was dependent on massive irrigation works, which were often destroyed in wars. But the huge peasant population always rebuilt them.

Then the Mongols rolled thru and not only destroyed the irrigation works, they killed pretty much all the peasants. Nobody to rebuild.

What is now Iraq was a major center of civilization for at least 5000 years, but it has never really recovered from the Mongols.

[Nowhere Man]

Maybe it's somehow tied to technical progress, American has seen more in it's 200+ years than the Roman empire did in a thousand years. Perhaps this has accelerated the birth and death cycle.

I have a pet theory where when a civilization develops atomic weapons (or a reasonable similarity thereof), there is a race to make it into space and develop colonies to either survive a collapse at home or avert it. I do believe myself there could have been a technical civilization prior to ours, such as Atlantis, maybe more than once where they grew and grew and they became arrogant and cocky and then they fell.

I also believe in the 200 year rule where "empires" rise and fall. You had the British where they defeat3ed the French in 1763 in the French and Indian War (that started a few miles away from me, I'm in Pittsburgh) or if your European, the Seven Years War. That basically establish the British as an Empire. Go 200 years to 1963 and by then, they were a former shell of themselves losing their colonies left and right. The United States first test was the War of 1812, We did not win it technically but we did not lose, we held our own and could stand up at least. Go 200 years later to 2012 and well, that is now. If course you had variations of the 200 year rule, I think it took Rome 400 or 500 years to decay from the time they declared themselves an empire.

Also as Mr. Jeeves pointed out, we have global communications first with radio and now down to the internet as we progress over time. I remember in the 1960's, John Lennon said that "more people heard of the Beatles than Jesus Christ" (in His day). I took it differently since even in 1966, we had a huge worldwide network of mass communications, shortwave radio, early satellite communication, networks and so forth. I took it to mean that if Jesus had those same tools, getting the Word out would have been faster and easier.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

If ancient ROME had invented TV and movies infested with fags they would not have lasted as long as they did.

[Nowhere Man]

If it does collapse it will be because of the most fundamental sin: the refusal to think. Those who demand the unjustified whether it be welfare or a job that they have not earned will destroy it. Those who hold sacrifice as a virtue and achievement as a vice are undoing it. Those who punish success and reward failures are rotting it from within. Those who act not on reason and a long range view towards the future but instead on the whim of the moment are bringing it down.

That's a key issue too, we have too many people who do not know how to use freedom like we used to. To them, "freedom" means "freebies" and freedom from thinking. Critical thinking is lost.

[veracious]

It will be worse; ours is a decent into slavery. Most will be returning to Egypt; already in the process of selling themselves to the head of the most powerful nation in the world.

[BrewingFrog]

Indeed.

The proper question to ask is, who is our Marius? Our Sulla? How do the current political situations and customs reflect the situations at the time they took their actions?

The Roman Republic died mainly because there weren’t enough people of character in power to sustain it. The Good Men did nothing.

[dfwgator]

I also believe in the 200 year rule where "empires" rise and fall. You had the British where they defeat3ed the French in 1763 in the French and Indian War (that started a few miles away from me, I'm in Pittsburgh) or if your European, the Seven Years War. That basically establish the British as an Empire. Go 200 years to 1963 and by then, they were a former shell of themselves losing their colonies left and right. The United States first test was the War of 1812, We did not win it technically but we did not lose, we held our own and could stand up at least. Go 200 years later to 2012 and well, that is now. If course you had variations of the 200 year rule, I think it took Rome 400 or 500 years to decay from the time they declared themselves an empire.

Even more tragic was the fate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which at one time was the most prosperous and powerful entity in all of Europe.

[Sherman Logan]

We were once the most literate nation in the world. Now our students can't crack the top ten.

If you look into the demographics here, there are some interesting stats.

People of Japanese and Chinese ancestry in America do better than those in the home country.

People of Swedish and German ancestry in America do better than those in the home country.

People of Mexican and African ancestry in America do better than those in the home country.

See a trend? Our low averages are more a result of our demography than of our failure to educate.

This was seen recently in an argument between Texans and Wisconsinites (?).

The WI folks were dissing TX for their low test scores, till somebody pointed out that blacks in TX did better than blacks in WI, hispanics in TX did better than hispanics in WI, whites in TX did better than whites in WI, etc.

But the much larger number of minorities in TX skews the results.

http://educationnext.org/are-wisconsin-schools-better-than-those-in-texas/

[Kevmo]

Will America Collapse Like the Roman Empire?
***It is collapsing just like the Roman Republic. Once it became an empire, it was in full decline.

Historians trace the death of the Roman republic to Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon river to engage in Civil War. I think historians will trace the end of our republic to the day in 2008 that the SCOTUS did not look into the eligibility of Obama, which was their job. They didn’t do it because they feared the political consequences. The SCOTUS has been granted lifetime employment for that very reason, that they wouldn’t need to consider political consequences in upholding the constitution. They failed our republic.