Rome.
The birth of the greatest empire in human history came from the chaos of 500 years of constant civil war. Rome began as a small town on the Italian peninsula. First a republic, and then emerged as an Empire after years of internal fighting. Located on central Italy’s Tiber River, which would come to grow to be one of humanity's most prosperous and influential societies. Hosting about 20 percent of the world's population at her height! Rome's success came from her core values and geographical position. Her citizens pride in her culture and their willingness to die for her, the openness of her society to welcoming foreigners, The accountability of her senators, tribunes and even emperors to her people, the importance of institutions and traditions over men, her commitment to upholding agreements and promises to her friends, and her ruthlessness to her enemies - Evan Andrews. Rome’s war against her enemies were violent and merciless. They became committed to the kill, even fighting Hannibal and Carthage for over a couple of decades. Rome's demise came from similar reasons that the US is already facing so early in her existence. Rome fell because of overexpansion, overspending, corruption, political instability, and the loss of her core values.
The United States of America is going down the same road as Rome. Except faster.
The United States lacks some of the core values that the Roman people and her government had, and that is a problem for a countries longevity. Even with our 300 year history, many Americans still face an identity crisis, especially amongst liberals, libertarians, and socialist. We do not have a cultural foundation for where we can derive our pride and sense of belonging on this planet. For some, but not for all and that small movement keeps on growing. Many Americans see Americans as foreigners and invaders to the true “American” native populations that were here before the colonies. That fact should seriously worry you. America’s social problems lead to radical ideologies, and movements like BLM and the growth of communist ideologies within universities. Look at the previous presidential election, Bernie Sanders, an outspoken socialist gained wide support amongst the youth. He almost won the Democratic Party’s nomination. This growth has caused massive friction amongst our politics to the point where the Democrats and Republicans can't come to terms on any serious policies that infringe on the others moral values. That is due to the fact that the parties ideologies are almost polar opposite. That goes to show you that we can no longer ignore these small crevices in our culture. Many of our political leaders on the left, are even openly advertising and supporting communist policies! Obamacare and social security are examples. Don't get me wrong! Those ideas are nice in theory, but they are horrible in practice and are leeching dead our economy. They ARE communist ideas, and communism never works! We have not and probably will not stick to the values set by our founding fathers. We are betraying them.
Just like Rome we are already having internal conflict that can potentially lead to split factions in the US.
Our nation is also going through the worst economic recovery in the past 70 years, as well as facing the burden of our tremendous debt. This is due to government overspending and unnecessary military expansion. The US has over 800 bases around the world and spends about 610 billion dollars on the military alone! The United States also owns 10 Nimitz-class "supercarriers," aircraft carriers that out compete all other carriers worldwide both in size and capability. We own more than half of the world's aircraft carriers! One of those carriers is already more powerful than all those other carriers owned by the other countries combined!
US naval power is off the chart, and her land armies are huge! For what purpose though? Are we going to be fighting the entire planet? Maybe an alien invasion? Who knows! But the firepower in our arsenal is not necessary! All the extra funding could be spent on technology and helping out humanity by funding large scale space tech. I dont know! Something other than killing machines.
On top of that, the country is heading towards a trade war against the nation that owns a great deal of our debt. China.
Unlike Rome, we are soft spoken and passive against any country that could rival us militarily or economically. When Rome fought Carthage, a society almost equal in her power, she went all out to achieve victory. In the 60’s America fought a country that had no possibility of defeating us, but they did. Vietnam defeated the US. We may have had more victories and kills, but we did not complete our mission or objective so we fundamentally lost the war. And the US is terrified of a war with a less powerful, but yet dangerous country like China. We are not aggressive enough and that is why America is bad at fighting wars. She has placed to many rules on warfare, like the Rules of war and Rules of Engagement. In a total war, where all aspects of society are affected, we cannot win. China will not be as harmless as us, and things can easily swing over. The main problem with another war is that America has always been split on them. The main reason and sole cause for our defeat in Vietnam was the loss of support back home, “The Homefront”. Even wars after Vietnam, Americans were always opposed to it, that causes indecisions amongst political leaders, which in turn causes anxiety amongst our military leaders. Romans would fight for Rome regardless of the cause, and that is why Rome won many wars over a VERY long time. The same problems that caused the fall of Rome are also the same reasons that I described and are heavily influencing the United States today.
So should we not take after history and learn from Rome?
Well we can, but we most likely wont until we hit the dirt. And hard. Maybe the USA will be divided just like Rome. There are already secession movements in some states, like California and Texas. California is even considering splitting into two all because of the greed of money. Oh capitalism….! Beautiful, but we are failing it and it is destroying us. That's a topic for another article though!
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absolutely outstanding.
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so okay that's it @raise-me-up-Bot!
#GFY
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I've thought this for a while. My friends and I have compared the US to Rome for a while now. The way that we are divided and the way that we seem to have lost our sense of national pride will be our downfall. Sooner rather than later...Good Post...
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great post!
I can see what you are talking about! I am hoping we can turn everything around. America does have a really strong army and I like that we can be safe but I do also see what you are saying and instead of using extra money on stuff let's use it to pay off all of that debt.
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that was the first promote I have ever done and it definitely deserved it
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