Are we like Rome

Posted by MagicDog 9 years, 11 months ago to Culture
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Some historians set the start of the decline of the Roman Empire at around the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus. The Roman and US constitutions have a number of likenesses and similar evolution from their beginning until they became essentially a political tool used, interpreted or ignored. The US constitution seems to be at the same “evolutionary” place that the Roman constitution was just before Julius Caesar installed himself as emperor. If this is true and we can use Rome as a template, maybe we can expect the US to drift into a long decline for the next 250 years until Washington D.C. is sacked.
The above scenario would probably fit into a picture of people sitting around in a futuristic fantasy world with embedded electronic devices. Inflation will get out of control while higher and higher taxes are required to fund ever expanding entitlements. The decline will be exacerbated by poverty, cultural decay, loss of borders and language degeneration.
Magic Dog


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  • Posted by $ Mimi 9 years, 11 months ago
    I think that we forget how the modernization of transportation, communication and technology has greatly influenced the speed in which a society changes.
    IMO,we haven’t got fifty years.

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  • Posted by Hiraghm 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yup, most folks think of Rome as "The Roman Empire", not realizing it was a growing, prosperous republic for half a millennium before turning to an Empire...
    It began to turn with Julius Caesar's bid for power, and within a matter of years it had an emperor, and from then it declined for nearly half a millennium.

    We rose in less than half the time, we'll decline in less than half the time. And it will decline for many of the same reasons.
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  • Posted by $ arthuroslund 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Rome wasn't built in a day" and it took 475 years to tear it down. The US like Rome is huge and it will also take a long time for the barbarians to completely trash it. Someday a man like Gibbon will stand on the D.C. mall looking at the Washington monument on it's side and ask "what happened?".
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  • Posted by $ johnrobert2 9 years, 11 months ago
    No, if the above scenario begins to appear, it won't take 250 years for DC to be sacked. Today's world moves at a faster pace and the makers of chaos and anarchy have much more potent weapons at their disposal than in former times. Look for it to happen quickly and with catastrophic consequences. The Dark Ages will seem the Age of Reason by comparison and for a longer period of time. I fear there will be no phoenix this time.
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