@budge
The fall and decline of the roman empire comes to mind
omparing the “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” with the rise and now decline of the British and now American empires has been something of an intellectual parlor game for now more than 200 years. But it’s fun to play because everybody has a slightly different collection of information and analysis to offer, and because people like predictions and patterns.
Consider the parallel “ages of man” dispute that has been going on for several thousand years — the ancient Greek poets Hesiod and Ovid offered theirs (they counted five and four, respectively), so did Shakespeare (he counted seven), and today we have generation-based theories such as William Strauss and Neil Howe’s “Fourth Turning.”
I don’t think any of us knows whether the United States has already passed peak awesome, and while my mind says Charles Murray is right that we’ve probably lost our country, my heart won’t take that answer. I listened to the latest in our Hillsdale Western Heritage 101 lectures, on “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic” with Dr. Ken Calvert, with all this in mind. Of course, even studying this for years will not generate a crystal ball, but the lecture did generate some data points to fuel another dinner table discussion.
1. Virtues Key to Success
Calvert says the Romans were a “very religious,” pious people who believed in honoring their ancestors and tradition. They also cherished courage, honesty, and duty, and their convictions, he says, were key to their rise as a culture. These virtues sound particularly like George Washington, whom contemporaries regularly compared to ancient Roman leaders, and today remains the American ideal of a leader.
https://thefederalist.com/2018/02/16/5- ... ed-states/
The U.S. reached its peak relative to the world, and in some ways its absolute peak, as early as the 1950s. In 1950 this country produced 50% of the world’s GNP and 80% of its vehicles. Now it’s about 21% of world GNP and 5% of its vehicles. It owned two-thirds of the world’s gold reserves; now it holds one-fourth. It was, by a huge margin, the world’s biggest creditor, whereas now it’s the biggest debtor by a huge margin. The income of the average American was by far the highest in the world; today it ranks about eighth, and it’s slipping.
But it’s not just the U.S.—it’s Western civilization that’s in decline. In 1910 Europe controlled almost the whole world—politically, financially, and militarily. Now it’s becoming a Disneyland with real buildings and a petting zoo for the Chinese. It’s even further down the slippery slope than the U.S.
Like America, Rome was founded by refugees—from Troy, at least in myth. Like America, it was ruled by kings in its early history. Later, Romans became self-governing, with several Assemblies and a Senate. Later still, power devolved to the executive, which was likely not an accident.
U.S. founders modeled the country on Rome, all the way down to the architecture of government buildings, the use of the eagle as the national bird, the use of Latin mottos, and the unfortunate use of the fasces—the axe surrounded by rods—as a symbol of state power. Publius, the pseudonymous author of The Federalist Papers, took his name from one of Rome’s first consuls. As it was in Rome, military prowess is at the center of the national identity of the U.S. When you adopt a model in earnest, you grow to resemble it.
A considerable cottage industry has developed comparing ancient and modern times since Edward Gibbon published The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776—the same year as Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and the U.S. Declaration of Independence were written. I’m a big fan of all three, but D&F is not only a great history, it’s very elegant and readable literature. And it’s actually a laugh riot; Gibbon had a subtle wit.
https://internationalman.com/articles/d ... me-part-i/