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The story of Rome’s fall is both complicated and relatively straightforward yet it eerily resembles America: The state became too big and chaotic; the influence
by Wh1skey 7y ago
The story of Rome’s fall is both complicated and relatively straightforward yet it eerily resembles America: The state became too big and chaotic; the influence of money and private interests corrupted public institutions; and social and economic inequalities became so large that citizens lost faith in the system altogether and gradually fell into the arms of tyrants and demagogues. If all of that sounds familiar, well, that’s because the parallels to our current political moment are striking. Edward Watts, a historian at the University of California San Diego, has just published a new book titled Mortal Republic that carefully lays out what went wrong in ancient Rome — and how the lessons of its decline might help save fledgling republics like the United States today.
- WhompingWindows 7y agoNot to mention they were all poisoned by lead, using it for sweeteners, pipes, and for their chalices and cups.
- hnuser77 7y agoOne could consider Americans poisoned by something, considering that 40% of the American population is obese (not just overweight) and sperm count has declined 50% in developed countries over the past few decades.
- rapnie 7y agoMaybe poisoned by greed, the main ingredient of unbridled capitalism?
- throwawayhhakdl 7y agoHmm... is the sperm count stat normalized to the obesity problem? I keep hearing things about America’s declining health, some of which seem to be “mysterious” and concerning. But then I’m always reminded that a lot of it is just people being fat. People being fat sounds like a highly probable culprit for why sperm counts are dropping on average.
- edoceo 7y agoFlint, MI would like a word
- notabee 7y agoA slow moving disaster of neglected infrastructure across the country would also like a word: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lead-map/reuters-finds-3810-u-s-areas-with-lead-poisoning-double-flints-idUSKBN1DE1H2 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lead-map/reuters-find...
- ip26 7y agoNot all of them, only the poor. If I recall correctly, sugar of lead was a poor man's sweetener. The rich could afford honey.
- jhallenworld 7y agoOne part of it was that times were better when emperors were selected based on ability instead of by heredity. https://medium.com/@samo.burja/how-roman-emperors-handled-the-succession-problem-730f15b812f https://medium.com/@samo.burja/how-roman-emperors-handled-th... https://www.britannica.com/topic/Five-Good-Emperors https://www.britannica.com/topic/Five-Good-Emperors
- JackFr 7y agoOne might argue that times were best when there were no emperors.
- rgrieselhuber 7y agoThe debasement of money is also a factor in both stories.
- fluorocarbon 7y agoMortal Republic is not about the fall of Rome. It's about the fall of the Republic, or the transition from a republic (oligarchy) into an empire (monarchy). Rome in fact reached its largest extent about a hundred years after the fall of the Republic, under the emperor Trajan. When people talk about "Rome's fall," they're usually referring to the decline of the western half of the empire which happened 400-500 years after the fall of the Republic. The reasons for this fall are debated, but it's likely due to some combination of plague, invasions, elite infighting, and a lack of rules about succession leading to constant civil wars.
- anigbrowl 7y agoThe GP didn't say it was about the fall of Rome, and nothing in the post suggests to me it was intended to be understood that way.
- aetherson 7y agoI mean, his first sentence included the phrase "the story of Rome's fall" and nothing between there and the book suggested he'd changed topics.
- anigbrowl 7y agoGiven that he concluded with the focus on saving the republic specifically rather than Roman civilization it seemed obvious to me.
- dang 7y agoWe've banned this account for spamming the threads with duplicate comments. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21645365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21645365.