Of course America is ‘like’ Rome in being a strong hegemonic bloc. It is a like a lot of other societies in that respect too. So that gives it about 500 years of control and another thousand of nominal control that everybody calls upon to justify their actions but actually pays no attention to at all and can’t do anything about their actions. You can always find similarities. The USSR was more ‘like Rome’ than the USA. The USA is possibly more like Carthage - but who knows much about Carthage?
No need to apologize. But it’s a good idea to learn about Classical history if you want to make that sort of analogy.
There’s significant differences in human rights (for starters), a huge gulf really. We got rid of slaves almost 150 years ago, and have extended equal rights to both sexes and all races. We have an environmental ethic which was literally unimaginable 2,000 years ago (tho it might not save us anyway). You’d have to ignore a significant amount of such evidence to argue that our society is going down that path.
I read in an another site that the Cold War was similar to the Punic Wars however instead of the Roman Republic-Soviet Union (a land based power) winning the Carthrage-USA (a sea based power) won.
I should. They should teach classical education at schools.
Except by the time the Punic Wars ended, Rome was the dominant naval power. I seem to recall, in fact, that the Romans ‘won’ the naval contest by the end of the First Punic War, even though they started off on the short end.
I also like the British analogy. I think eventually America will be less influential in the world, but that doesn’t mean a descent into anarchy. Similar to how Britain is no center of the world empire anymore, but still a perfectly respectable first world place to live.
In a world* where poverty is eradicated by development, a growing middle class, etc it is inevitable that the poorer countries will grow faster than the United States, and it is inevitable that the increased wealth will translate into greater political influence. Eventually I would expect that as these countries got more assertive they would be more interested in being players in their region, and would prefer a larger military role. I think in terms of catching up with America’s military might the rest of the world is a long way off, but I do think that will be the long term trend.
I also don’t see that this as necessarily a bad thing for anyone, including the United States. Sure, it has relatively less power, but in a world where the other power players are relatively well off countries, with lots of middle class citizens, it may even be better off. It makes for better relations (like the United States versus Australia, or Japan, etc). If relations like that are extended to 99% of the world, it could be safer and more prosperous for everyone. I think such a world would be a huge improvement over the current one - a world where the United States is still the vastly dominant player is a world in which many other countries are still impoverished - not that I’m claiming that the US is the cause, merely that the fact that other countries are not dominant implies that they are still poor.
*This paragraph should be said out loud in the movie trailer guy voice.
I don’t think the US or any large country right now can be compared to any empire, big or small, from that era. It bugs me that its mostly fundies that complain about things like debauchery and decadence and think we’re all going to burn. This is no longer the age of empires. If the US was going to collapse, you can bet Europe would not be storming the gates to grab our land but to prop us up with fiscal investments and cultural exchanges. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories where the US is damned, I think we can literally legalize and promote prostitution and drugs without being existentially threatened. So no, the US is not becoming like Rome.
If we are spending too much we’ll have a recession to stop it, if we are being too decadent then cultural mores will change. If we are moving away from god then we can only survive longer
No historical analogy is perfect, but I see some points of similarity:[ul][]Republic comes to prominence after defeating it’s major rival? (Punic Wars=WW2, Cold War) Check.[]Former colonial powers eclipsed? (Greek-Macedonian empires=British/French empires) Check.[]Limited self-defense of republic replaced by ever-expanding foreign strategic commitments? Check[]Conscripted citizen armies replaced by dependence on professional solider class? Check.Economic base of middle class undermined? (imported slaves=exported jobs) Check. [/ul]On the other hand the analogy with the decline of Britain as a great power has merit as well. Or for that matter, the decline of the reactionary and overextended Spanish Haspburgs.