Posted on 06/10/2007 11:02:49 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
The Rome and America comparison is very much in the air these days -- you have only to cock an ear. It's invoked by those who yearn for a worldwide Pax Americana, and also by those who wring their hands about an impending "decline and fall."
In truth, ancient Rome and modern America differ in a thousand ways. But a handful of parallels hold up.
One has to do with the way we view the outside world. Imperial Rome often knew little about the people beyond its frontiers. Disparaging those people, it underestimated their capabilities. America's motives in the world may be more well-meaning than Rome's, but our behavior is handicapped by the same disability. In our ignorance, we don't see what's coming at us -- or what we're hurtling toward.
The idea of American exceptionalism -- the notion that we represent "a shining city on a hill" -- is certainly one reason for lack of interest in the outside world. This indifference is long-standing, and confirmed with tedious regularity. A recent, particularly painful benchmark: A 2002 National Geographic study, which found that three-quarters of Americans age 18 to 24 could not locate Iran or Iraq on a map.
It may be that busy people in a sprawling nation simply have other things on their minds. But what about those you might call the elite? Throughout 2004, CBS News devoted all of three minutes to coverage of the genocide in Darfur. America's intelligence agencies have been criticized for lack of attention to militant Islam, but the underlying problem was hardly new. Three years before 9/11, a former CIA officer recalled that during his years at the agency, not one of the Near East Division chiefs could read or speak Arabic, Persian or Turkish.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
If we last as long as Rome did, and have as profound an impact on the world, we will have done well.
Interesting that a Leftist would cite as supporting evidence a fact that was actually CAUSED BY the Leftist agenda (ignorance of geography, as this class time was obviously used for social indoctrination or other such leftist programming).
“All Gaul is divided into three parts...”
Rome knew plenty about the outside world. And it lasted for a millennium.
Actually, we are doing what Athens did!
Which part?
The book is really academic...and is a l-o-n-g read. But one thing that struck out at me was that Athens started out with $8 billion in silver before their 27 year war....which is an extraordinary amount for those times....and it all was spent and their way of life disappeared.
If the MSM hadn't concentrated the bulk of their efforts to undermining administration policies in general and the President in particular, perhaps they would have realized there was other news out there...
And we’ve been in a 65-year war.
Check my profile. I had to read Thucydides in grad school recently, along with Sun Tzu, Clauswitz, a bunch of neoconservative thinkers, Gen. Patraeus, Gen. McCafferey, the 9/11 Report, and some law review articles.
Thucydides should be required reading in college - or at least parts of it. Anything about Pericles, and the Melian dialogue, certainly.
If we last as long as Rome did, and have as profound an impact on the world, we will have done well.
I agree wholeheartedly. We often think of the Roman's as the bad guys, whose empire 'fell' because of whatever fault it suits our purposes to project on them. They certainly had many flaws; however, they did offer a few amenities that made life just a bit easier for the average fellow on the street: roads, running water, medicine, reliable law enforcement and justice systems. I'm sure living under those arrogant Romans was simply intolerable for the liberal social critics of the time, right up until Rome fell, the Dark Ages started, and the profession of liberal social critic became a wee bit hazardous for the next 800 years or so.
“America’s motives in the world may be more well-meaning than Rome’s, but our behavior is handicapped by the same disability. In our ignorance, we don’t see what’s coming at us — or what we’re hurtling toward. “
If this were in fact a handicap on either party... would the author be able to name the outside force that brought about Rome’s downfall? It was a loss on the part of Rome, not a gain on the part of the other cultures, that caused Rome to fall.
In that, I will agree to a similarity. The USA is losing it’s identity. This is an internal issue as well. We need to look to it.
No enemy on the outside is as dangerous as the enemy on the inside.
“As Americans do, the Romans tended to see foreigners in terms of broad cultural caricatures.” What a load...we bend over backwards to avoid such, and our reward is to have idiots like this, and citizens of the countries we defend, maligning us as racist hicks anyway.
“In Hoc Signo Vinces?” Hardly.
Hanson’s book is a good read...although I didnt finish it. Maybe if I received some credit for it I would be more motivated!
I read this guy in Vanity Fair, which hates Bush and does everything they can to attack him. Cullen Murphy doesn’t seem to know any Latin and does not appear to have a solid grounding in the history of Rome. That won’t stop him from writing about it, though.
“If we last as long as Rome did, and have as profound an impact on the world, we will have done well.”
Yeah, but who wants to be a statue with no arms?
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