Saturday June 6, 2020
148 Days until the election on November 3rd
228 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
I remember this comic from the Ed Sullivan Show*. He said he was a school teacher in the New York City school system. He complained that the students today were not like in the old days. One example he gave was a student’s response to the question: “Why did the Roman Empire fall?” The student’s answer was “The Roman Empire fell because of carelessness.”
The comic’s complaint was “How can you mark that wrong?”
Another view of the fall of the Roman Empire holds that it’s not that it fell, but that it took so long.
What causes an empire to fall? What causes a civilization to disappear? A religion? A democracy?
Many historians, I am told, consider democracy a transitional period. Most democracies don’t last more than two to three hundred years.
Why? What happens?
Carelessness.
I recently heard a scholar on Rome speak. He said he used to get questions about the fall of the empire, but more recently he’s been asked about the fall of the Roman Republic. One thing he noted was that the people who were alive at the time of the fall of the Roman Republic didn’t believe it would fall. Why? Because it had always been there. At least, in their lifetimes it had always been there.
When Constantinople fell to the Turks it is said the shock reverberated throughout the Christian world. Why? Constantinople had always been there. No one thought it would go away. Why did it fall?
Carelessness.
But what do I mean by carelessness?
A failure to comprehend.
Elon Musk made a great point during the run up to the launch of his SpaceX rocket. He said that progress doesn’t just happen. It is caused by people being focused on an objective.
Why did Notre Dame burn? Short answer is that there was no fire suppression system. Why wasn’t there one? It hadn’t needed it for over 700 years; there was no reason to believe “today was the day” (that they would need one?)
A failure to comprehend.
Trump and his antics and followers have been compared to Hitler. This week unidentified Federal agents were arrayed in Washington DC. They wore no identification. This was on purpose. Why? How can we even be sure they are Federal agents? Who sent them?
A leaked memo suggests that they were pulled from all sorts of Federal agencies that have some type of police force, such as the Federal Corrections Bureau.
These unidentified men stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and other Federal properties in Washington DC. It reminded me of Hitler’s Brown Shirts. His group of thugs that he kept close to him during his rise to power.
To be clear the Federal government is responsible for the Federal buildings and the property they sit on. However, Washington DC is responsible for and owns the streets. That is why the mayor’s action to rename part of 16th Street “Black Lives Matter” and have it inscribed on the road in big yellow block letters pointing right at the White House is so great.
( I have to wonder who believes William Barr’s explanation as to why he had Lafayette Square cleared. It was to set up a one block perimeter around the White House and had nothing to do with the president coming out for a photo op, just a coincidence. – Yeah, right. )
Some have likened the actions of Trump, his supporters and collaborators to the Vichy government in France or to Hitler and his Brown Shirts. There are reasons to collaborate, and many excuses why one does it. Read Anne Applebaum’s excellent piece in the Atlantic for a full description – “History will Judge the Complicit” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/
History is not on the side of democracy or on the side of a political organization surviving forever. They all fall. When they fall, many do not see it coming.
I am struck by a comment that someone said when looking at the opulence of the Loire Valley chateaux, “Why did it take so long?” (for it to fall?) When the gap between rich and poor becomes so large, something gives. Eventually, it is the rich, the powerful, the entitled that are swept away and a new order is established.
148 Days until the election on November 3rd
228 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
PS Yaxchilan – Structure 40
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