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.

[Mr. Jeeves]

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.

So do I. There is archaeological evidence, though not a lot. There were fewer people in the world then - and the best may have traveled away from Earth to avoid the cataclysm.

And even if it didn't happen, there are a few dozen great novels to be written based on the concept. :)

[Nowhere Man]

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.

True, ABC weapons are a problem. The only "good" thing about nukes is they require maintenance although I'm sure they can still be dangerous with just the core where you have have a Hiroshima "gun bomb" or a dirty nuke as a result of a "fizzle" or just spreading it around an area. That takes care of the atomic side, as you put it, the bacteriological/biological and chemical weapons are still there and the latter can be made easy.

[dfwgator]

I will trace it to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

[Billthedrill]

Nero was a Momma's boy. You want perversion, try Elagabalus. Commodus was no slouch in that direction, but Elagabalus was too over-the-top even for the Romans, who killed him for it.

Sexual license was the least of Rome's problems, and was pretty much restricted to the patrician class anyway. Now illegal immigration, on the other hand, that was a real problem, and a very interesting parallel to our own budding issues in that arena. Caracalla tried extending citizenship by geographic occupancy, numerous emperors conferred it as a reward for military service. None of the four emperors in Diocletian's Tetrarchy was born in Italy. Hmm...

[Mr. Jeeves]

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.

Thank you, Miss Rand. :). But you are absolutely correct...

[root2702]

This may paint me as a history nerd, but Rome didn’t fall for 400 years after Nero, and it was “great” again after his reign. By the second (and definitive) Sack of 455 by the Vandals, Rome was a passionately Christian city. And the Vandals were Christians, too (still clinging to some Odin/Thor fallbacks). But Rome wasn’t the empire’s capital anymore at that point, so it was a symbolic fall. The real seat, at Constantinople, didn’t fall for another 1,000 years. Even then, the Turks so admired the empire they conquered, they tried to perpetuate their state as the Roman Empire (like it was a franchise or something) and Greeks continued to call themselves the “Romioi” until the 19th century.

[mjp]

If it does collapse it will be because of the most fundamental sin: the refusal to think.

There is an overarching factor, one always at work, that shapes the minds and distinctive achievements of its cultural creators and makes sense of the past and can be helpful in predicting the future. That factor is how one thinks or what is the predominant mode of thought of a culture. The mode of thought that made America great was integration. As this gets replaced by disintegration (Kant, pragmatism, postmodernism, linguistic analysis, nihilism), or by misintegration (marxism, mohammedism, metaphysical materialism), we are headed toward totalitarianism.

MARX, ENGELS, AND THE ABOLITION OF THE FAMILY

[Little Ray]

I don’t know that we’ll get lucky enough have a Sulla or Maurius. We seem have the same corrupt politicians that Republic Rome suffered from, and we seem to the same leveling bastards that fought them. In fact we seem to have a pseudo-Gracchi president...

[Huskrrrr]

Take a look sometime at the American Embassy in Iraq.

An excellent point, I had not considered this.

[DuncanWaring]

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

[Para-Ord.45]

Been happening since FDR, maybe Teddy Roosevelt.

The USA is akin to a helium party balloon slowing down, losing altitude and failing.Slowly but imperceptibly the balloon begins losing gas and starts to drop from ceiling to floor. One day you look behind the sofa and there is a little wrinkled bag behind it.

Slowly but without doubt, the USA is going to be a wrinkled empty party balloon collecting dust behind the sofa.

[rigelkentaurus]

obvious answer is no, the collapse will be a bit different than that of the roman empire.

[trubolotta]

I’m not sure about Babylon, but the western Roman Empire stopped defending itself and left the dirty work of the military mostly to barbarian mercenaries. The Romans were no longer willing to risk their lives to defend Rome. Are we reaching that point? Why should I risk my life to defend land ruled over by a government I am coming despise more each day? Why should I risk my life to defend a land that harbors people that could care a whit about my liberty or even my right to defend myself?

[sergeantdave]

“Will America Collapse Like the Roman Empire?’

Nah. God is allowing the turds to float to the top of the toilet so we can flush it.

[youngidiot]

In other words, the left. Bastards.

[youngidiot]

We were astonishing for about 200 years. Then the left made great gains, now we’re doomed.

[BrewingFrog]

That’s exactly what I have been thinking...

Santayana was right. It is a farce.

[listenhillary]

Freedom is hard. Freedom means standing up and thinking for yourself, not looking for victim status to achieve maximum sustenance from the state. Freedom is doing for yourself instead waiting for others to do it for you.

Freedom is hard, Statism requires little or nothing other than following directions.

We’re in a losing battle as fewer and fewer know what is being lost and how precious freedom is.

[redgolum]

Rome didn't last 1000 years.

What we call “Rome” was first a Republic, then a Tyranny, then a Monarchy. Each stage lasted 200 or so years.

The name survived in Constantinople, but it was not the same. Even there it went through stages.

200 years is about the time frame of a republic/democracy. People want to have others make choices for them, and that fits into a monarchy quite well.