Empires always fall in the end...

[Soph0571]

Ask Britain right now... the only difference is the Christianity element. Oh wait. Soph peers across the pond.
We are all doomed. Doomed I say.

[The Wizard]

1. The road to empire

Is paved with republics that failed because of over ambitious, unsustainable military expansion.

[PortTack]

6. This! Once a Roman centrist could no longer reach the outer most posts of the empire in one

Day’s ride, the empire began to crumble

[Kaleva]

15. In the meantime, the expanding Empire conquered those who were static

[Farmer-Rick]

2. The huge slave population was also a destabilizing force

"The mass influx of slaves during this time period first was a sign of great wealth and power, but later destabilized an already fragile Roman class system. Farms originally run by small business families throughout Italy were soon gobbled up and replaced by enormous slave run plantations owned by the aristocratic elite. Cheap slave labor replaced work for the average citizen and the rolls of the unemployed masses grew to epidemic proportions.

These issues had a great destabilizing effect on the social system which had a direct role in the demise of the Republic. As the rift between Senatorial elite (optimates) and social reformers (populares) grew, the use of the unemployed, landless, yet citizen mobs were an overwhelming ploy grinding away at the ability of the Senate to govern."

https://www.unrv.com/slavery.php

In many ways the loss of our manufacturing jobs (only 9 percent of work done in the US is manufacturing today use to be about 25 percent) to foreign countries is similar to the loss of jobs due to slavery in ancient Rome. The elites are happy for awhile until it catches up with the destruction of the social system. I think the population of slaves outnumbered the number of freemen in some cities in ancient Rome.

Also, it is interesting how citizen mobs was a result of the destabilization. And that consolidation of farms had huge affect on unemployment.

[Delphinus]

3. It's probably

a bit more complex than that, but it does make one wonder.

[Tommymac]

4. Modern Society is still evolving...it is less then 5000 years old.

Democracy is simply the bleeding edge of societal change - it has only been around in it's present form since 1783 or so, and only was formulated in the Enlightenment that was first explored philosophically earlier in the 18th century.

Constitutional Republic, Parliamentary Republic...these are NOT Empires. No matter how laymen characterize them.

So all that stuff about 'Empires always fall' in the end is IMO just words.

Democracies will end too...when something more efficient and humane comes along. But the interregnum can be barbaric and bloody.

Human Rights are constantly evolving. The Human species IS moving away from violence and IS more conscious of individual rights and freedoms. Just ask Marie Antoinette and Anne Boleyn and even Jesus Christ.

But every societal transition almost always falls back to the last 'level' at some point - we as a species take 2 steps forward then 1 back. (In this case an argument could be made that the precious level is 20th Century Authoritarianism which grew out of 19th Century Victorian Colonial Empiricism).

IMO we are in one of these transition moments where the old ways (authoritarianism, feudalism, etc.) are desperately trying to hold on and push back against the new less violent and more humane ideas that came out of the 17th Century Enlightenment.

And we here at DU are in the Front Lines of pushing the new paradigm of Equality and Human Rights for All forward.

We WILL Win in the long run. (If we can adapt to the changing Climate - technology is another issue for another day.)

[HipChick]

5. Agree Soph0571...if an empire is going to fall

I'd rather be eating a sausage roll from Greggs and having a nice cup of tea and watch...

[keithbvadu2]

7. Ozymandias

Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

[malaise]

9. Shelley was pure genius

Love that one

[CrackityJones75]

8. I love coming here

I love coming here to hear about our imminent failure and demise.

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. Heh

[BlackSkimmer]

13. You can certainly count on that. nt

[Raine]

17. Doom and gloom 24/7

easy to find here.

[Elessar Zappa]

10. I don't believe we're doomed at all.

The world has been trending less violent and more prosperous for a long time now. There may be some hiccups but I don’t see the trend ending anytime soon.

[roamer65]

12. ...

“Each age is a dream that is dying, or one coming to birth.”

Quote I remember from the movie, Rollover (1981).

[Kaleva]

14. Everything has a finite lifespan. The old are supplanted by the young or new.

[Xolodno]

16. People warned about the demise of the Russian Empire.

The other elites scoffed along with the peasantry, The Romanov dynasty has been around for over 300 years, it can't fall. Then it happened.