Posted on 10/12/2008 4:50:22 PM PDT by NCjim
With modernity crumbling, our thoughts turn to antiquity.
The decline and fall of the American Empire echoes the experience of the Romans, who also tumbled into the trap of becoming overleveraged empire hussies.
As our sand-castle economy washes away under the tide of bad gambles and debts, this most self-indulgent society lurches toward stoicism (even bankrupt Iceland gives us the cold shoulder and turns to a solvent superpower). It’s going to require more than giving up constant infusions of stocks, Starbucks and Botox.
As Seneca, the Roman Stoic who advised treating the body “somewhat strictly,” wrote in a letter: “Avoid whatever is approved of by the mob, and things that are the gift of chance. Whenever circumstance brings some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm ...They are snares. ... we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Sounds like a plan. I nominate a tract of land near Wichita for the construction of New Washington (we can rename it [first notable leader in the new capital]-opolis later).
The ‘red states’ can go on for another thousand years after what passes for civilization in the ‘blue states’ collapses.
No Maureen, we are not any more Rome then Catherine Zeta Jones is a bitter washed up columnist drunkenly filing stories full of inane stupidities.
So, let me guess - even though that quote is easily seen as a prescient warning against submitting to the excesses of Obamania, Dowd's narrow political blinders prevent that interpretation from getting anywhere close to her keyboard...
As Stanley, the great wit and fairly expensive plumber said, “Those who do not learn from history are bound to become newspaper writers”.
Not only was Stanley profound, he could set a stool pretty well too.
“Oh, the Roman was a rogue,
“He erat was, you bettum!
“He ran his automobilis,
“And smoked his cigarettum.
“He wore a diamond studibus,
“An elegant cravattum,
“A maxima cum laude shirt,
“And such a stylish hattum!”
;^)
As some droppable name lamented, “O tempura! O morays! O, for f***’s sake!”
Best....FR Rule....Ever....
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