Greetings, Roman.
"I would have [the reader] trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of the modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them."
- Livy (59 B.C. - 17 A.D.)
From his preface to
The History of Rome from its Foundation
"There is nothing new under the sun."
- God
From his international best seller
Those who have spent any time around me will have at some point been subjected to my theories on our present state of affairs as a nation and how this relates to the politics, society and culture of Rome in the latter part of the Republic. I have long maintained that if we wish to understand where we find ourselves today we must look to the best example history will provide. I believe we would be shocked at what we find there.
The next few/several postings will be selected thoughts from this theory. I will admit at the outset that this theory is full of holes, not properly researched and it is more than a little presumptuous for me to put it out there in the first place. Then again, such is blogging at its essence.
All that being said, I will set a little of the stage at the outset. Livy lived through the most troubling and tumultuous times any Roman could have conceived of. He would have been old enough to have at least a child's memories of the dying days of the Republic, and would have remembered well as it breathed its last with Caesar in 44 B.C.
During this period, most Romans must have felt as though they were riding a horse with no reigns. Powerless to stop the life they loved disappearing, they watched as family influence and money influenced politics to a greater and greater degree. The ridiculous lives of the opulently rich occupied the public's attention. People felt increasingly isolated from the true process of democracy.
For many, it was also the greatest period they could have ever imagined. As wealth continued to pour in from an economic empire protected by the invincible might of the Legions, many became too busy or preoccupied to care about the cost of their lives of comfort. Parties and games were becoming more popular. Vacation homes on the coast were becoming a must have item.
Sound familiar? Through the next couple of postings I will look other aspects, from the military, to politics, to culture, to the family, to religion. For me, these similarities are everywhere in our modern lives. Perhaps you can tell me where I am wrong. Perhaps you can point out some stuff that I have not seen. Perhaps this isn't news to anyone else, but for me this helps me think about how to live and work and play in America at the dawn of the 21st century.
posted by Jason Fleming at 3:05 PM
4 Comments:
Dude, history repeats itself like mad. I once said in a history class that I don't think learning history is to learn from it so we don't make the same mistakes. someone responded to that saying 'of course it is. We will never allow anything similar to what the Nazis did because we learn from the mistakes of history.' And of course the only response to that is Bull $h1+! (genocide os happening right now in Darfur, and happened in rwanda 10 years ago, and we let it happen) But having an understanding that history does repeat, we do make the same mistakes, we are able to live better in a similar situation. I can't wait to read the rest of your posts.
Jason, glad to see you in the blogosphere. Experience as they say is the best teacher. I think that all socities that find themselves in the throes of hedonism have reached their nadir. Many people honestly judge the merit of an idea, a product, an institution, or anything else not on any concept of it is good, right, pure, just, or beautiful. No instead we have deferred to the profit motive, does it make money, is it entertaining, does it provide pleasure (no matter how fleeting). I had a roommate in college like this who took a business ethics course. His concept of ethics was "I might as well do it because someone else will." The problem with this guy is that he is not an anomaly. He is your average "dude" out to pursue ultimate personal pleasure and mimize any effort or pain. As Dallas Willard would say, "the world is flying upside down and they don't even realize it."
Do you think the Romans wanted lots of tax cuts for the wealthy? Do you think they told people it would help the economy?
:)
To be honest, I don't know who the romans taxed. But I think the wealthy were more invested in the government than todays wealthy. They probably served in the army (to gain power) gave money to support the government (to gain influence) and it's the same today. The only difference is the that rich people don't give money to government, they give it to a party, they don't serve in the military, they campaign for a candidate. The poor in Roman times were more abused than today. Today we keep them from (or try to) begging for money. Then the goal of government was to keep them from rebelion.
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