Just listened to a show about ancient Rome, makes me go 'hmmmm..'

[havocmom]

Extremely self indulgent wealthy class. Check

No real middle class. Only working slaves and wealthy owners of everything. Ownership society, indeed.

War as part of the economy; kill off fighting age men and enslave women & children to maintain the economy that serves only the wealthy...

We're almost there, AGAIN.

[lonestarnot]

1. Yes we are. :(

[Taverner]

2. If you were in Rome right before it fell, you had probably no idea

it was going to happen...

[Speck Tater]

3. If you were in Rome during the fall...

... you never would have noticed it happening. It was a slow motion collapse. very slow motion. It took generations to tumble down. So don't expect to wake up one morning and say "Hey, the empire collapsed while I was sleeping." That's not the way empires and civilizations collapse.

[JNelson6563]

6. And it is the far flung territories that get it first

and in more obvious ways like successful uprisings from the natives in those colonies/territories.

Julie

[Goodnevil]

5. Not so much Rome as Great Britain

We assume that our empire is as great and far reaching in influence as Rome's, but I'm not so sure. We did spur on a global democratic revolution, but who's to say it wouldn't have gone on without us?

Either way, I see more parallels with the decline of the British Empire than with the fall of the Roman.

The British shipped their manufacturing to India, they relied too much on overseas trade for their vital materials which is why Germany was able to cripple them with U-Boat warfare. Their greatest strength (sea trade) was their greatest weakness.

The British got involved in too many wars and had their hands in too many conflicts. It sapped their resources and population to such a degree that they could no longer deal with important social problems and fragmenting societal cohesion across the Empire (what little there was).

There are differences, of course, but that's what two semesters of British history led me to believe.

[villager]

4. Art Hoppe wrote about exactly this -- in 1973! -- in his column, "The Mightiest Nation:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/07/22/ED78905.DTL

[Goodnevil]

7. THAT IS AWESOME

Totally awesome.

[villager]

8. pass it on... ;-)

n/t

[Goodnevil]

9. already did