Posted on 08/05/2007 8:43:29 AM PDT by Dick Bachert
How the U.S. can avoid its own version of the fall of the Roman empire
That is, are we Americans, citizens of the mightiest empire the world has known since the days of the Caesars, living in the last days of our civilization? Is the United States, like the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, doomed to collapse from its own decadence? Or can we avoid Rome's fate?
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Join me in praying that we are NOT a modern Rome. And pray that modern technology has not permitted us to compress their 2,000 year slide into 300 but will provide the means by which we can halt it.
The United States is going to eventually break up, that is an inevitability because it has never been a nation in the true sense of the word. It’s actually been more like 9 nations contained within national borders which paid little to no matter to arbitrarily set state borders.
A secular nation ought not decline into inhumanity, but it always does.
If there is a historical parallel to America’s situation today, it is more likely Rome in the 1st Century B.C., during which their ancient Republic gave over to Caesarism and its successor, Imperialism.
“What does this have to do with immigration? Fredo Arias-King, foreign policy adviser to former Mexican president Vicente Fox, wrote last year of a visit he and a delegation made to Washington in 2000. They met with 80 congressional lawmakers, nearly all of whom – Republicans and Democrats – openly welcomed immigration because, in his view, they saw Mexicans as potential dependents on the state and therefore loyal voters. The advance into the U.S. of the client-patron model of governance, which has helped stagnate Mexico, bothered Mr. Arias-King greatly.”
The problem is the human heart. Sir Tyler nailed it when, over 200 years ago, he wrote:
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until voters discover that they can vote themselves largesses from the public treasury. From that time on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.IMHO, we are in the "from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency" stage. Much of the Katrina mess was caused by apathy. And look at all the government entitlement programs creating dependency (being a retired Soc Sec recipient, can I still complain? :). And yet Congress is raring to go to add more (DREAM act, SCHIP, etc.)."The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."
Yep, usual bs
Mexican criminals have seized portions of the United States southern border and conduct their criminals activities with impunity.
Abortion is happening in every nation so does that mean the world is doomed??? First off, we have decreased the number of abortions (significatnly) now that the Baby Boomers can’t have children any more so the United States is on the rise again!!!
Methinks you’d better go back and read more history — especially OURS!
“Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic but will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path to destruction.” T. Jefferson
“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic giant to step the ocean and crush us at one blow Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.
“At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” Abraham Lincoln, 1837 (NOT one of my favorite figures but he got THIS one right.)
Both these men knew history and UNDERSTOOD the grave perils of the national arrogance that doomed other nations — and which they both knew could (would?) beset America.
“Stop treating government as a necessary evil.” This is a solution? I would say stop treating government as a personal fiefdom.
Uncontrolled immigration. This is a key to Rome’s collapse. The Goths were allowed into the Empire as manual laborers. They killed Emperor Valens in battle at Adrianople in 378 A.D. and sacked Rome in 410 A.D.
The United States is not an empire. We are more akin to Republican Rome. We should look at why Republican Rome fell. Most of these historians of antiquity were British. They relate more to the Empire. Personal corruption started with absolutism. Read Suetonius’ The Twelve Caesars.
Stick with St. John the Devine for this kind of stuff.
The nature of empire is far more politically correct today than in ages past.
We have US military scattered all over the bloody globe, making it is more de facto than de jure just in case we DO have to move to the level of de jure should the need arise.
A good a summation as any. The inevitable decline of a human ‘tribe’. We are predators and territorial animals by nature. Once we have attained territory and sufficient means to prosper we lose purpose. Our declining birth rate supports your case - “”from apathy to dependency””.
Our form of socialism has removed the need for parental importance from the equation. Once born, children are effectively wards of the State. With Western technology sperm and egg donation we are almost at the point of biological redundancy.
Reducing the number of alive unborn children slaughtered for the utility of the evil is not the same as repudiating the evil. Even Moloch was only fired up periodically, not kept white hot.
The entire rise and spread in the power and influence of Rome for many hundreds of years was characterized by routine and widespread infanticide.
Western Roman Empire didn’t fall apart till after it became Christian and the practice stopped.
The Roman Republic ended in 27 BC. The Roman Empire which followed was not something to be glorified, characterized by rulers such as Caligula and Nero, et al..
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