Every so often I hear the following phrase, or something very similar, "is America declining like Rome", or "Will America fall like Rome", or some such question that proceeds an attempt to show that America's fall could be imminent and occur like Rome's fall (and the author of the quote is often quite sure as to why Rome fell. The reasons given for Rome's fall are many - over 210 different causes have been cataloged according to this Wikipedia article: http://ift.tt/1ofyezT
I've been trying to figure our the riddle for over 25 years, and the only answer I can come up with is: "Rome Sucked" - so nobody was going to seriously fight and die for it. That's right - "Rome Sucked: it had made life so miserable for the vast majority of its so-called citizens that very few of them were going to waste there time fighting and dying for an Empire whose rulers didn't really give a damn about them anyways. As a result, the routine Barbarian Invasions and Incursions by Foreign Powers ceased to be a nuissance, and started to become existential once people no longer cared to put up a fight. And once the Western Empire had been conquered by the so-called "Barbarians" (who actually seemed to like the concept of Rome - or so they thought) not even a willingly-cooperative Barbarian Horde could suffice to hold up it's corrupt government.
As a result, the last Emperorer of Rome - Romulus - wasn't conquered and deposed, he was simply told to go home by the Barbarian Odacer...and that was the end of the Western Roman Empire. Rome so much did not fall, as it withered away.
Or so is my thinking.
I've been trying to figure our the riddle for over 25 years, and the only answer I can come up with is: "Rome Sucked" - so nobody was going to seriously fight and die for it. That's right - "Rome Sucked: it had made life so miserable for the vast majority of its so-called citizens that very few of them were going to waste there time fighting and dying for an Empire whose rulers didn't really give a damn about them anyways. As a result, the routine Barbarian Invasions and Incursions by Foreign Powers ceased to be a nuissance, and started to become existential once people no longer cared to put up a fight. And once the Western Empire had been conquered by the so-called "Barbarians" (who actually seemed to like the concept of Rome - or so they thought) not even a willingly-cooperative Barbarian Horde could suffice to hold up it's corrupt government.
As a result, the last Emperorer of Rome - Romulus - wasn't conquered and deposed, he was simply told to go home by the Barbarian Odacer...and that was the end of the Western Roman Empire. Rome so much did not fall, as it withered away.
Or so is my thinking.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1L5Vmpo
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