The New Rome and the War on Terror

This article submitted by Jason Welle on 9/30/02.

Topic:

The New Rome and the War on Terror

Thoughts:

On September 11, 2001 the specter of religious zealots who will do anything in their power to expound their views rose again to demolish the military, economic, and political nerve centers of the second great experiment in democracy. The abuse of religion for personal motives is not anything new and neither is the fallacy of civilizations that are unable to adapt to changes around them. In the first five centuries of the past millennium, humanity’s first great try at democracy finally collapsed to surrounding tribal societies, but mostly to its own internal disabilities and disintegration. A growing ineffectiveness of the Senate, power struggles, and the strengthening power of a new religion called Christianity over the old state religion are among the components that caused the Roman Empire to fall. Today, the new Rome is experiencing some of the same things. It is also facing a new internal enemy based in a relentless drive for a technological and science-driven society.

The U.S. is a nation of people who do not have a national unity even comparable to previous chapters in our history, such as the World War II period. The effects of our culture have people living in micro-worlds; people are strangers to one another, there is rampant disinterest in public service, and many are ignorant of anything outside their normal routines. An overload of consumerism and freedoms has made people blind to the dangers and underlying de-evolution of our culture. Your average American is not a “well-rounded” person, does not have a sound general knowledge of their world, and cannot even recollect their own country’s history. Serious issues often bounce off young Americans’ ears and become mundane in a month and the cast of Friends and Monday Night Football are of paramount importance. Our legal and political system is a joke that is in need of serious repair without needing the threat of terrorism to help it.

It is possible for this country to fall into disrepair – civilizations do so, and the last great experiment in democracy did 2000 years ago. The Roman Empire’s fall should hold many warnings and lessons for the current state of the United States. America isn’t likely to fall to invasion or other military means; the agents may be internal and will only be aided by the threats of terrorism and our indecision. Back in World War II, thousands would be flocking to either fight or support the fighters in the war. This is very unlikely in this day and age, and has shown to be true.

An evil conspiracy, Technopoly, consumerism, the Matrix, the triumph of science fiction over tradition, The Brave New World- call it what you will. We and several other nations live in a culture that is self-defeating and is invading all facets of our lives. The poor nations of this world are often subject to tyrants and terrorists and these people must be dealt with. These tyrants and terrorists are attacking us. We cannot let them aid our culture in bringing us down. We must be strong and deal with these dangerous people. We must also put our heads together in order to develop ways to bring awareness of our culture to the people.

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