So all the weird Russian far right "Third Rome" nationalists who consider Russia to be the inheritor of the mantle of the Roman empire, and the Tsars (and I gue

So all the weird Russian far right "Third Rome" nationalists who consider Russia to be the inheritor of the mantle of the Roman empire, and the Tsars (and I guess now Putin) some sort of continuation of the imperial legacy, and blargety blargety blarg... They're right, it seems. Same pathetic dysfunction as the late western Roman empire (and to some lesser degree the east), same story that played out constantly through 3rd, 4th & 5th century: some mercenary militia deployed to a border war or conflict revolts, and some crude warload declares himself the next Emperor, and turns around and marches on Rome, and the cycle repeats. Where legitimacy of state authority is not established by respected democratic elections, and authoritarianism and might-makes-right rules, really not a surprise when things break down into rival militias, and the population lacks a democratic frame of reference or an ethic of participation and simply defers to whomever has the most guns and the most money to hand out Who is looking "degenerate" now? What's worse, tolerating some homosexual/trans rights, or an armed militia of ex-convicts invading your capital city? (Anyways, re: TFA the US (and most other states) uses weird rewritten history national mythos crap, too. Manifest Destiny, the "framers", etc. etc. it's a bit bizarre to watch from the oustide, too)