House of Eratosthenes

Future Present
Posted on March 29th, 2009 by Scipio

Our archeologist, while rummaging among the ruins of our fallen civilization, met a ghost from the long dead race of Americans. The wraith boasted much about what we had been as a people.

We died in the hundreds of thousands to end slavery here and around the world.

We invented Jazz.

We wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg address.

We went to the moon to see how far we could hit a golf ball.

We lifted a telescope into orbit that could see to the edge of the universe.

When people snuck into the country against our laws, we made parking lots and food stands off to the side of the road so they wouldn’t get hurt, and we let them use our hospitals for free, and we made their children citizens.

We didn’t care what God you worshipped as long as we could worship ours.

We let the People arm themselves at will. Just to make sure.

We gave everybody the vote.

We built Disneyworld. Just for fun.

We had a revolution so successful it was still going strong two and a quarter centuries later.

We had so many heroes, even at the end, that we felt free to hate them and burn them in effigy.

We electrified the guitar.

We invented a music so compelling that it rocked the world.

The archeologist asked, “If you accomplished all of this, then why did your nation collapse?” The ghost answered, “Because we went insane.”

“Please explain.”

The ghost took a breath and said, “We traded beauty for ugliness, truth for lies, liberty for comfort, love for indifference, responsibility for frivolity, duty for entertainment, history for sound bites, and children for pleasure. We had gold, but we tossed it aside and replaced it with cleverly designed dross. We turned men into women and women into men and marveled at our new creative power. We stopped looking up to Heaven and began to keep our gaze firmly fixed on the ground. We abandoned the old God for a host of hip, cool and slick new ones.”

“And?”

“Those new gods turned on us. At first they granted us our every wish. They laughed with us. They danced with us. We all ate, drank and made all sorts of merry. All of us exulted in our power. And then…” Here the ghost stopped for a moment. His mouth was half open as if trying to speak. His body shuddered as it remembered an ancient terror. “But there were some among us who felt something was wrong, dreadfully wrong.”

“How so?”

There’s more…much more. What’re you still doing here?

Sounds a bit like the wreckage of the Roman Empire, doesn’t it? The population, once composed of highly educated men who were willing to fight. The government, once composed of a democratically-elected Senate, which presided over a republic.

Which gained most of the territory eventually controlled by the Empire. Which grew only marginally once the transition from Republic to Empire was complete.

At the height of its power, Rome was the preeminent military and cultural force on Earth. None dared challenge its authority, or if they did, such a rival was brutally crushed and its land permanently occupied. Carthage met this fate, as did anyone who stood in Caesar’s way in Gaul (France) or what is now Spain, the British Isles, and the Near East. It controlled the entire shores of the Med and with it, had undisputed claim to this massive body of water. Unapologetically, Rome asserted its authority throughout the ancient world, able to do so because of responsible, wise, and humble leadership, and most of all, a people who understood their place in history. Who were spoke their minds and took what was theirs. Who were not afraid of offending a bunch of lawless barbarians, not hesitating to send the military to eradicate their terrorism and guerella warriors. Who crushed and destroyed enemy states who were a threat to Rome’s power and influence. These enemies were smashed under the hooves, chariot wheels, and boots of the Legions, who were using the latest military technologies, and finest training and discipline.

Rome took its holdings and assets for granted, assuming beyond all logic and historical precedent, that its nation would always continue to exist. They did not do the hard work required to keep it alive and thriving.

Eventually, the populace became fat, dumb, and complacent. They turned a blind eye while their elected Senate was disbanded and replaced with a dictatorship. They were mute as this dictatorship persecuted members of minority religious faiths and indulged its own whims. Those who did speak out were “silenced.” The government and people alike became bloated, clumsy, corrupt, and ignorant.

At times the circuses, which the government could barely continue to afford, were nonetheless kept running 24/7 to keep the common people amused. They did not notice (or did, and failed to protest in numbers) as the empire was swamped by immigrants from other parts of the world. Immigrants who felt no connection to Rome nor shared its sense of nationalism and pride. By the time people sat up and took notice, the Empire was already dependent on these immigrants for everything…from its labor force to the ranks of the military itself.

It’s commonly asserted that Rome fell because it overextended itself. That it was using 500,000 legions to control a swath of territory around the Med that would have required 3 million to garrison properly. Perhaps there’s a grain of truth to that, perhaps not.

But what’s undeniable is that in the Empire’s later years, it went through a long list of morally corrupt emperors, few of whom sat on the throne very long and none of whom were interested in much besides the furtherance of their own power, or the gratification of their personal desires. The emperors, along with a small ruling elite, took the fat of the land and had orgies in their palaces while the infastructure crumbled.

Eventually, the Empire collapsed after centuries of overtaxation, corruption, and self-indulgence. Basically, it ran broke, its leadership no longer able to tax its people enough to support their obligations to the citizenry. Between the circuses and the free health care, there was no longer enough money left to keep the military up to par.

Rome fell, and was destroyed by a group of rampaging barbarians known as the Huns. Though vicious and merciless, though skilled on horseback…the Huns would have been slaughtered by the Imperial Legions if the former had challenged them directly at the height of Rome’s power.

The eastern half of the Empire lived on another 1,000 years, gradually transforming itself further and further away from the original Roman culture and traditions. It too was eventually destroyed, this time by a rampaging Muslim army who were able to smash through the walls of Constantinople with cannon. The very forces which today threaten to do the same to us.

Rome, contrary to popular belief, was not murdered. It committed suicide. Who was it that once pointed out that all great nations end this way?

What is the point of this history lesson, you ask? Well…ask yourself if you see any parallels between Rome just past the height of its power (right before beginning its descent into madness)…and the modern US.
- cylarz | 03/31/2009 @ 03:40

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