Empire or Democracy: Are We Ready for the Fall?

Increasingly, parallels are being drawn between the fall of the Roman Empire and the current American Empire. Yet as John W. Whitehead points out in this week's vodcast, we are not Rome—at least, not yet. Reminding Americans that it is still our prerogative to think and to act, Whitehead asks: Do we want a democracy or do we want an empire?

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• rome
• john
• whitehead
• rutherford
• institute

[Patriot1415]

100% correct on all points. It is a shame watching what is happening to this country. Most people are totally unaware of this situation. They are to busy seeing what Brittany Spears will do next.

[Stan1208]

The sooner we have a huge disaster, the sooner we can turn to the Lord. This country is beyond help. Too far gone. God help us.

[NiceGuy838111]

And they shut their eyes upon their rotten cities, and opened them to their blind gods and idols. Hither the Rome falls, dear Cicero, tis how it falls.

[ryangr7gisback]

thank you goerge w bush for all the good work you did you fuckin retard you should be ashamed to be american.

[committeesq]

I can't think of a time as a preteen or adult that America didn't seem like Rome, though not at it's VERY worst, though going rapidly in that direction.

China is in our future. We need to be better educated to deal with that future.

: sigh : Enjoy today while you know what you have.

[cbradley1391]

ok, now how do we STOP it?

[guitarthroat]

ALL empires in recorded history have possessed attributes that are similar and approximate to our current political/economic conditions. This has nothing to do with some nefarious, conspiratorial parallel to the Roman State, in any period. This is because human beings are motivated by greed and self interest governs most actions. The condition of economic affluence will put ANY civilization on this course of decline over time. It is a natural course of events and there is NO stopping it.

[guitarthroat]

There are some valid points in this. BUT, this is HIGHLY generalized and not necessarily accurate about the Roman state. There were several phases of the Roman state. The early republic, the Principate, east and west empire,tetrarchy, dominate, and the later Byzantine or eastern Roman empire once the west was gone. The Byzantines lasted a thousand years after the Western empire fell. To generalize it in such a fashion is too spurious and unscholarly to be an accurate analysis.

[mlaise]

Title should be: Empire or Republic: Are We Ready for the Fall?

We have, and were not designed, to be a democracy. Our founders hated the idea of democracy.

[rusty57]

Thirty years ago, I would have said "democracy;" now I think the fact that it is so hard to find voices warning us of encroaching fascism, that I just don't think the message is getting across to enough people.

There are too many tea party types who look at the growing power of corporations and call it "government out of control." If people don't even understand who's for and who are against them, the slide to fascism is inevitable.

[canvasheart]

@migo53333  Merry Christmas