Watching Another Fall – In Real Time
According to British Historian
who specializes in ancient Rome,
the fall of the Roman Empire was …
… government failure.
At a basic level the emperors and government officials of the Late Roman Empire had forgotten what the empire was for.
The wider interests of the state were secondary to their own personal success and survival.
There had been plenty of selfish and corrupt individuals in earlier periods of Roman history, just as there have been in all other societies.
The difference was that by the late empire it was difficult for them to behave in any other way.
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While my academic credentials in the area of history are not as illustrious as Dr Goldsworthy, I have my opinions based on historical evidence.
I believe the only way a society gets in trouble with rampant, power hungry politicians like in ancient Rome, is that the citizens became self-centered, primarily lovers of base pleasure and simply did not “watch the gate” so to say which gave an opportunity for corruption to take hold to a point that nothing could save them from the fall.
So – to get to the point that Dr Goldsworthy so well put, there first needs to be a complacent public who became malleable due to their own debasement.
To successful people, there is pleasure in work and accomplishment.
The comforts that come from accomplishment are full of pleasure.
“Pleasure seekers” have only an empty future
to look forward to.
Without a public wanting an emperor or king because they have been conditioned from earliest life to believe they need to be controlled because they cannot control themselves …
… without the helpless, folded hands of a complacent, self-centered public, the ones who would lead a nation astray in order to feed their own hold on power could not come to fruition.
This is history. This time we are watching it happen in real time.
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Romans 1:28
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.”
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Rome began as a REPUBLIC … It was CHANGED into an EMPIRE.
Change brought on
a crumbling society.
If a garden is planted and then not attended to or its progress observed until the time of when the harvest is due, it should not be a shock to discover all the wonderful seeds planted were choked out by weeds and thistles.
Category: Tony Rollo Blog