Letters to the Editor
-
We Are Rome, We Are America, We Need Not Fall
Where we have strength is in returning to the Constitution. The people must vote, must return to active civil life and mist revive a spirit of ownership and responsibility for the government.
But corporations must concomitantly be reined in hard and put away wet. They have been running at full gallop and unchecked for far too long. Returning government charges to agencies and eliminating outsourcing to privateers is another critical element of saving the republic.
Returning government to the people, by the people and for the people is the biggest insurance against a catastrophic fall and collapse.
-
"Are We Rome?"
Yes.
-
Or, we could go this route
http://www.vermontrepublic.org/
Before you dismiss this out of hand, let me tell you that Vermont has *really* good beer.
-
A Roman holiday would be nice!
Has anyone seen my cat? It has two eyes and a tail that points north northwest.
-
We're way beyond Rome
beyond even Stalin's best wet dreams. Soon remote scanners will be posted on streetcorners probing our very innermost thoughts. Special dispatch teams will set up devices to track and alter people's behavior WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE. Those who do not alter their behavior adequately will be dispatched with discrete poisons or electromagnetic fields designed to mimic diseases. Caesar could not have imagined such power. Democrats and Republicans alike are drooling over the possibilities.
But hey, in their absolute greed and lust for power over their fellow countrymen, this is what Americans are inviting into their midst.
-
Our American Ideals and Our American Progress...
...were the only things that ever made us better than Rome.
In practice, Americans have been brutal, very much like the Romans. Even while we wiped out Native Americans and oppressed African Americans we used to have the ideals of Liberty and Justice For All and Equal Opportunity. And we made progress toward these ideals, plus progress in improving the lives of American people.
Now, abruptly it seems, our leaders have given up on the ideals, rejecting basic rights such as habeas corpus, and embracing basic evils such as torture. And progress is in doubt. American optimism and hope are fading.
For an example, compare our Vietnam War (which ended thirty years ago) with our current Iraq War. Vietnam was a colossal, tragic mistake, but we got into it for idealistic reasons. And many of us believed we learned from the Vietnam mistake, and that we had made progress.
But Iraq, now, is nothing but a cynical, brutal, failed attempt at conquest. Nothing is idealistic about it except our leaders' phoney-baloney cynical lies. And it is the war many of us believed Vietnam had taught us not to fight.
We have become Rome fairly recently. But we will not last. The Romans were much better fighters than we are, but even the Romans lost when they went to Mesopotamia. If we try to set up an empire, we will fall much faster than Rome fell.
-
The Jewish Perspective
is quite different. Rome was held to be Edom, i.e. Esau, Jacob's evil brother. It destroyed the Second Temple and massacred untold numbers of Jews. It was probably the standard of evil until Hitler.
The U.S., on the other hand, is known as haMalchus shel Chesed, the Kingdom of Kindness. Today the US is known as one of the greatest centers of Torah in history.
-
"beyond even Stalin's best wet dreams."
Wow, dial back on the meds. Saying crazy shit doesn't help your case.
-
Religious and Ethnic Diversity
Romans weren't divided from one another on the basis of religion. Theirs was an amorphous polytheism that could absorb anything that didn't threaten the state. Americans of different religions, though generally polite to one another, don't socialize. Romans had no concept of biological race or ethnicity. Americans do, hence a disruptive inclination to favor one's own group - African-Americans, Irish-Americans, Chinese-Americans, etc. This seems to impede us from taking actions that would contribute to the common weal. In these respects we may be worse off than the Romans.
-
reading Gibbons
or just having a basic grasp of Latin will give you enough perspective to realize that every dog has its day- Rome had its day, America will have its day too
More about the classics: when you read them, especially in the original, you are sucked into a world that you viscerally feel is both long gone and immediately relevant. You have a deeper appreciation for human nature and you realize that some cycles can't be avoided.
Like the cycles of empires- pride goes before the fall, absolute power corrupts absolutely, choose your motif.
-
I hope not...
G’day. I’m an Aussie who finds himself draw to American politics for some reason - Salon, The Republic, Stewart, Colbert, Maher etc (OK, the last three are damn funny too).
Lately I’m starting to wonder why I should care – apart from its incredibly over-funded military, how relevant is the US on the world stage these days? Pretty much all first-world countries (and some developing ones) are, on the whole, more educated, more inventive, more efficient, more secular, more... advanced.
Of course, I’m obviously oversimplifying things - you only have to watch the Eurovision song contest for five minutes to see that the States still have a lot to offer the world, but... its politics?
So now I’m thinking that what really fascinates me about US politics is that it’s a great case study in how a noble political system can be corrupted to the core by money and influence. If I can recognise a professional con-man in action (The Bush administration) then it’s easy to spot an amateur playing the same tricks (your "deputy-sheriff" and our Prime Minister, John Howard).
But another part of me suspects that I can’t look away because I know I’m watching the decline of a great civilisation. Apparently Nero could blame his madness on the lead water pipes in Rome, but what’s George W’s excuse? When I think about Rome burning to the ground, I can’t help but see the contemporary parallel - will you guys come good, or implode, or... flame out and take the rest of us with you? Scares the hell out of me, to be honest.
Good luck.
-
bloated military?
What have you been smokin' Gary? Our military is held together with chewing gum and promises.