Will America Suffer the Fate of Rome?

Many people with whom I talk these days say they sense something is happening to their familiar world. They are not sure how to put this feeling into words. For them, the river of time seems to have altered its course. You hear this uncertainty expressed not only at cocktail parties but at barbecues, too.

We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." These words by Barack Obama echo through time. Have they been heard before, in another language, in another age?

I sense those who walk by the banks of the Potomac nowadays realize the politics of those who once walked by the banks of the Tiber. We share in our time, as the United States of America passes into something else, an experience shared by those who lived through the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.

Like a mighty river, the flow of politics creates a current that is irresistible. We may want to stop the flow but we can't. That feeling of struggling against the current, of swiming hard but getting nowhere, is what the man cast adrift feels before he is drowned by events."

In Niall Rudd's introduction to his English translation of The Republic and The Laws by the Roman statesman Cicero, Rudd writes:

Cicero dreams of Rome as she had been a hundred years earlier, before the structure had begun to give way under the strains of empire.

Granted, it would be too late to save the Republic now; three years later Caesar would cross the Rubicon. But even if, by some stroke of magic, Cicero's dream had come true, disaster would not have been averted. By the 50s huge problems had developed which could not be solved within the framework of what was, essentially a city-state.

First, an empire of such size and complexity could not be run by a small élite of all-around amateurs in which within a decade the same man might be expected to manage finances, administer city departments, sit as a judge, and lead a military campaign. The voting system was over-centralized and out-dated; citizens could no longer be expected to travel to the capitol for elections and other meetings of the assembly...

There were also intractable economic problems resulting from the decay of smallholdings owing to the absence of farmers on military service...All this led to the growth of a workless and resentful urban proletariat, which could easily be inflamed by demagogues.

That, in turn, contributed to the worse problem of all. Troops were recruited by promise of loot and land...(these troops) depended for their future, not on the Senate, but on the power of an ambitious general...There is an air of unreality about the Laws.

Little by little, the river of time floated the Republic into the Empire. Today, we look back and remember the insanity and debauchery of Caligula. We remember, too, Cicero for is writings and how he, according to Plutarch, "stretched out his neck to meet the murder's stroke."

Now, let us imagine a thousand years from today. A scholar of that new age is translating from English to his own language what remains of William F. Buckley's God and Man at Yale.

In his introduction to Buckley, this future translator writes about Buckley as if he were the Cicero of his age living in the American Republic, except Buckley did not suffer the fate of having his hands and head cut off by his political enemies.

Our future translator writes:

Buckley dreams of the United States as she had been a hundred years earlier, before the structure had begun to give way under the strains of globalization.

Granted, it would be too late to save the US Constitution, now; the Democrats would run Obama for President. But even if, by some stroke of magic, Buckley's conservative dream had come true, disaster would not have been averted.

By the late 1990s huge problems had developed which could not be solved within the framework of what was, essentially a nation-state. First, a nation of such size and complexity as the United States could not be run by a small élite of patronage, party politicians in which within a decade the same man might be expected to manage finances when he was only good at campaigning.

The voting system was corrupted by illegal immigration and out-dated machinery; voters could no longer be expected to prove citizenship, or vote for a candidate who would abolish their government job...

There were also intractable economic problems resulting from the decay of small business, owing to the increase in government regulations and higher taxes ... All this led to the growth of a workless and resentful urban proletariat who lived off welfare, and which could easily be inflamed by Democrat Party demagogues and their media allies.

That, in turn, contributed to the worse problem of all. Troops, who were recruited to fight the desert wars, came home to inflation, falling property values, and unemployment. Their patriotism also was suspect in the New North American Union.

Many of these troops joined the underground and resistance. They were hunted by military drones, the same drones they used for desert warfare ... There is an air of unreality about God and Man at Yale.

Three thousand years have passed in translation. Our translators wonder if to be born and to die is the common journey of man. In-between, there is politics; Republics and Empires come and go. Some are statesmen. Other men are assassinated.

Robert Klein Engler lives in Des Plaines, Illinois. His books, Monarchs of August and Contra Obama, are available from Lulu.com. Read about his legal defense fund.

I wouldn’t necessarily call Islam an “organized successor.” In fact, if the US were to fall apart, the Islamic world would start killing each other almost immediately. Those outside of the Middle East (in Europe, especially) are outnumbered, at least for now, and are more likely to find themselves on the wrong end of a gun. Tolerance only goes so far, when people are starving.

I do agree that there has been a concerted effort to marginalize the religious and cultural foundation that led to America’s greatness, but that foundation is still alive and strong in much of the country. Maybe not on the coasts, but in most places in between. Our resurgence will come from there.

However, I do agree with you conclusion, that a fall of America would be much worse than that of Rome. In Roman times, there was less dependency on a complex economic framework. Most places could carry on, while the world around them crumbled. This is not true, now. If the economy implodes, people will starve. Most urban areas (and their surrounding areas) around the world cannot feed themselves, and cannot sustain the sheer numbers of people they currently have, without an efficient global economy.

Most importantly, if the US falls, the rest of the world falls harder, and more chaotically. Our economy (coupled with our military strength) is the primary the reason the world has been generally stable for 50+ years. Unlike the fall of the Soviet Union, for example, there will be no big world wide economy to tap into. We would be alone, surrounded by a suddenly very “interesting” global environment.

>>I wouldn’t necessarily call Islam an “organized successor.” In fact, if the US were to fall apart, the Islamic world would start killing each other almost immediately.

It is more organized that you want to believe. Most of Islam’s chaos is due to the western world drawing artificial borders and injecting our money and influence. The borders are slowly disappearing and once America and Europe’s money and influence wane, they will go through a process where one side of Islam will rise to the top and then they’ll have the order they need to move forward.

If we do not offer an alternative to Islam, the desperate and starving people of the world will grab on to whatever hope seems more real. Watered-down Christianity is going to come in second to a strong Islam with a message and answers to real problems. A strong belief system, Shariah law, dhimmi taxes, and alms for the poor will go a long way in the post-American world.

Don’t rule out the coasts. The southeast is on one of those coasts. If we can survive as a Christian nation (and that’s the only way we will survive what is to come), the southeast and middle of the country will be the only places that even have a chance to make it. The liberal middle and upper Atlantic, along with the rust belt and west coast is lost. We would do best to cut them loose now and I wish there was a way to divide the nation. But even the strongly religious and nationalist South is getting weak as the communists indoctrinate our children and the media accuses us of racism every time we open our mouths.

Maybe, but I think that the process of various factions trying to rise to the top would take a long time. Left to their own devices, as they would be, they could easily spend the next 100 years killing each other. The tribal hatreds are deep, and will be exacerbated by the loss of the economy they have taken for granted up until now.

While some may respond to Islam’s “promise”, Islam is going to be competing with all kinds of demagoguery and leftist utopias. In this country, at least, I don’t see it having much success.

My bigger concern lies to our south. Mexico is falling apart right now. A collapse in the US would seal their fate, and the chaos would inevitably go north. Any united message stemming from that mess would find a very receptive audience throughout this country.

Oh, and you are right about the southeast. I generally think of the southeast as being non-coastal, for cultural reasons.

Mexico (and the Mexico Norte within our own borders) are a wild card. A broke and hungry USA would destroy them. But, they are strong Catholics down there. Would they fall back on their faith, or abandon it to turn the American west into some Mad Max wasteland?

As for the leftists, they will not survive the collapse.

First, they cannot exist without modern conveniences (except for a few hippies). They exist because of The Thin Chrome Line, which is the ability to pretend to be back-to-basics and down-to-Earth as long as someone else is keeping the electricity, water, petro-chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and communications infrastructure working for them. These are people that think that not having a Starbucks within 10 minutes drive is the apocalypse. These are people who have a bicycle in the garage and drive an SUV to the gym to work out. They are walking contradictions.

Second, when the SHTF, the good Americans who worked hard and paid their taxes and raised their own kids and just wanted to be left alone are going to want some payback—big time—from these jackals that ruined America and doomed the human race to a thousand years of hell.

The Roman Empire--one of mankind's most dubious achievements--did indeed undergo a slow decline, over a period of more than 500 years, and ultimately fizzled out toward the end of th 5th century A.D.

However the Roman Republic fell--after years of civil war--with the assassination of the usurper, Julius Caesar, and the seizure of power by his heir, who adopted the name Caesar Ausustus.

The Roman Republicans--like the American Republicans--had thrown off the rule of a king and were determined never to be ruled by a king again.

Augustus therefore declined to be called king--but he nevertheless established himself as absolute ruler of what had been the Roman Republic.

He immediately assassinated everyone who might threaten his power.

He was succeeded by Tiberius--who was a monster.

Tiberius was succeeded by Caligula.

The final ignominious fizzle-out of the Roman Empire wasn't much of an event.

The fall of the Roman Republic was one of history's major events.

Our children and grandchildren could very well suffer the horrors of The Fall of the American Republic!

Rule by an Augustus--or a Tiberius--or a Caligula--is a fate that those who are destroying the American Republic deserve.

Our children and grandchildren do not deserve such a fate.

I agree that the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy represented America's greatest generation.

Those who are now destroying the United States--The Left--are America's worst generation.

And yes. Our children could very will witness the Fall of the United States!

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