Are We Rome?

Good insights by Cullen Murphy:

He likens the "insularity" of Rome at the end of the Empire to Washington, DC "inside the Beltway." Both lost any comprehension of what common people's lives were like. Each seemed to think they knew what was best for people they no longer understood (although they certainly wouldn't admit they no longer understood them). How very true! Although this book was written a couple years ago, if you followed the bailouts, esp the auto hearings, it rings true, as clear as a bell.

He notes the loss of what the Romans originally called, "virtu." It was a sense of duty, of responsibility to do what was right. People acted in the best interests of others, not selfishly. Of course, the last decades (centuries?) of the Empire saw a collapse of this sense of "virtu." The early Americans, esp the Founding Fathers, had a similar sense. Rather than a sense of duty, Americans have come to be selfish, to look to the government for its duty to take care of us.

He writes of "the privatization of government," both in Rome and the recent US. This "condition has left government responsive to particular interests, but deaf to the popular will." Again, this was written a while ago, before the recent fiascos--both in DC and Lansing.

Other similarities (I'm not quite done with the book), including remarkable ones in the military, are clearly exposed.

Yet, who cares? Even if some people did read this book, who would care? Most would still vote for BO or McC, Jennie, Kwame, or others of their ilk. Of course, most think these people and the government are going to save us. (See above.)

The subtitle of the book is "The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America." Hmmmm.