"the decay of rome has been frequently ascribed to the translation of the seat of empire, but this history has already shown that the powers of government were divided rather than removed. constantinople was erected in the east, while the west was still possessed by a series of emperors who held their residence in italy and claimed their equal inheritance of legions and provinces. this dangerous novelty impaired the strength and fermented the vices of a double reign...a vain emulation of luxury, not of merit was introduced and supported between the degenerate successors of theodosius. extreme distress, which unites the virtues of a free people, embitters the factions of a declining monarchy. the hostile favorites of arcades and honorius betrayed the republic to its common enemies; and the byzantine court beheld with indifference, perhaps with pleasure, the disgrace of rome."
edward gibbon chapter XXXVIII of the history of the decline and fall of the roman empire.
yeah...i know comparisons with rome are trite and from a viewpoint of historiography an uncertain business...the past does not foretell the future...if it did we could have avoided this debacle and flushed the whores into the potomac with the rest of the turds...however, a bit of judicious editing...the insertion of the words tea party, democrats, republicans, chinese, etc. and you could have an approximation of what's up in the divided halls of the hallowed national bagnio...the social darwinists in the republican party passed the cobbled together boehner vision that came of contentious disagreement...but the plurality was a joke and a sizable number of the stalwarts jumped ship to vote against their crypto-fascist brothers in the lower whore house...there are multiple faultlines in evidence and that does not bode well for a fix...there are those on each side which would behold with 'Indifference"or "perhaps with pleasure" the failure of the other...i entertain a bipartisan loathing for the creeps and wouldn't mind seeing them all fail if i and those in my precarious social strata ( read people with jobs) wouldn't be the immediate victims of that failure...then again...think of the stench we'd be leaving behind when the empire fails and we are forced to return to a culture of co-operation and mutual support rather than servicing the greed inherent in the capitalist ruling class...no more consumerist utopia...empty big-box stores and unused shipping containers as shelters for the homeless...advertizing neutralized...no more lame sit-coms...the death of celebrity...the return of the real...quick or long term a fix is not imminent ( of course since the whores are creatures of special interest and special interest are about what is going on NOW not later there NEVER will be a long term anything that emanates from the bordello ) anytime soon...the default deadline will come and go because all these "degenerates" have left is ideology and that bodes no good for the street...fuck these people.
7-31-2011 7:52 pm
okay i just watched obamaland announce thet there is a deal to avoid a default, raise the debt ceiling, allow us to "pay our bills", and to reduce the deficit "responsibly"...but i got no details...most of what i have read about the rejected proposals actually said they were deferring what and how much to cut to committees down the road...no doubt in closed door sessions and employing the same "responsibility" that engendered the mess in the first place...i smell political expedient because the street is pissed...the question is what will this really fix?
I think we should create a 2nd America (just as there was 2nd Rome: Constantinople) but where to place it? Hawaii is nicely isolated but not big enough to move all the stuff from the Smithsonian. Australia would work (large isolated island, people speak English, close to the new powers that will rise in the East)but lacks oil reserves and the fat cats still won't go for wind & solar. Hmmmmm....
ReplyDeletei'm inclined to think the fat cats aren't so much addicted to oil as they are to wealth and power...make wind and solar profitable to them and they be on board...australia is a sunny place ( and full of bonza blokes ) so ideal for solar and sheep...but you get bogged down in the energy and raw materials ( rare earths) that you have to invest in manufacturing solar panels in relation to the energy they return...we might end up with a wendell berry sort of vision of labor intensive organic agriculture...a return tot he 18th century...so many competing visions out there it's hard to tell what might happen...it does seem as thought he current system is pretty much used up...but even that might be delusional...brought on by a personal malthusian bias...i do like the idea of taking the smithsonian with us though...the past is always such an interesting place...too bad our exceptionalism won't let us learn from it
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