As we age we grow disappointed by how the world works. Dark Ages America by M. Berman is a recap of all we seem to be doing wrong. A challenge.
The underlying theme of the book is the USA has entered a period similar to the decline of the Roman Empire (starting in 200 AD) which signalled the beginning of the dark ages in Europe.
The Roman Empire dissolved slowly. As Rome grew powerful it started to conquer new lands, train local armies, welcome to Rome immigrants to perform the humble jobs while the Romans grew complacent. The barbarians gradually absorbed the Roman culture without providing new life to it. Rome weakened because the Romans forgot what being a Roman meant. The outcome: decadence on all fronts.
Is this what is happening to the US? Mr. Berman seems to think so. We are growing contented and these are the main themes of the book. Just food for thought.
1. We are an empire. We have fought almost every country. We have troops, ships, planes, bases, proconsuls all over the planet. We fight and destroy to bring Pax Americana (read: democracy). Yet we have supported the most ferocious dictators (such as Hussein).
2. We need an enemy to fuel our drive to conquer. First there was Russia, now we have the terrorists. This is an enemy we use to control the oil in the Middle East, an endeavor which started in 1908. The history reported is interesting and eye opening (for me).
3. We are not told what is going on and what the US policies are. The chapter Axis of Resentment is particularly interesting in this respect.
4. Our education system is in shambles and we cannot compete in the global economy when our students fall miserably close to the bottom of international rankings.
5. Our civil liberties and value system are being dramatically eroded in the name of fighting terrorism.
6. Our thirst for war in the name of bringing democracy around the world is the road to the collapse of the US empire as it was the beginning of the end of the Roman empire.
[Ed: Russia and China are watching.]
George Dagnino, PhD
Editor, The Peter Dag Portfolio
Since 1977
(and still having fun with it)
1 comment:
Form my reading around the collapse of the Roman empire, fairly frequent inflationary bouts in the economy to finance wars etc... had always been resolved with deflation.
Deficit financing had proceeded in this fashion since Nero - 50AD.
Yet by around 300AD the commodity value of the currency was near totally debased. People had moved out of the city into becoming tenant farmers of large landowners know as coloni (basically sharecroppers).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_of_the_Third_Century
Politically, the power was with the army, and there was a huge burden of high paying government jobs/non jobs and buerocracy, and great liabilities to fund the armies high levels of pay and troops.
Even more fiat currency was printed to cover these liabilties, no doubt a further huge boom occured in real estate, financed by leverage, but one thing's for sure - Massive inflation in the price of commodities followed, which soon fed through into prices, and a rash of edicts (laws) followed from 304AD to regulate the 'commodity speculators' on pain of death from raising prices, as well as more government regulation which resulted in a prices and incomes policy.
A massive population database was then implemented throughout the empire - denoting everything taxable (the census).
By 330AD - just a few decades later, a frigid caste system governed all work, colonii were formally turned into serfs - owned by landlords - who were required to pay increasing taxation under the burden of the population register - in kind (once the commodity value of the currency went, only trade in kind/barter was left).
When the currency collapsed, the trade empire largely collapsed, the trade routes etc... followed by the empire itself into all those hilltop walled towns you see in Italy.
The rest of the empire fell to the fallicy of mass immigration and it's handmaiden - demographically stronger populations which soon politically weakened and overran the entire western roman empire, and whose population created the Anglo-Saxon empire of today, which is buckling in the same way.
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