Saturday, August 8, 2009

Entropy wins again?

Much like Africa always does?

I'm something of a history buff, especially regarding the early history of Western Civilization. In my various studies, and frequent arguments with professors, I've noticed a trend. Not some obscure historical fact, I'm sure many Americans are thinking on this very trend right now.

Civilizations are cyclic.

Let's take the origins of Western Civilization, the ancient Greeks. The rose to completely dominate, sometimes, the Mediterranean, had colonies and influence in parts of Africa and reaching up North into Europe. Eventually, there were a few nations that rose and were similar enough to be grouped into Western Civ, but Greece remained at the forefront. There was Thermopylae, Marathon, Troy, and the conquests of Alexander to tell us that no matter what you think of the Greeks these days, their ability to make war was no mean thing.

Then they fell. I'll not get into all the causes of their fall, or that of others, as they are still debated widely, but the root will be the same throughout.

Next rose the city of Remus and Romulus, Rome. Growing from its humble origin as a town astride a trade road, Rome grew to dominate the ancient world. With outposts ranging from the shores of Africa, to halfway up Britain (clearly marked where Hadrian's wall was) and out East into modern day Turkey.

And they declined, fractured, and, finally, fell. Others rose up to take the reins in Europe eventually, but the true successor to Greece and Rome was the United States, starting somewhere around the establishment of the Monroe Doctrine.-

Now, with the decline of national identity resulting from rampant illegal immigration (if you don't know what I'm talking about, take a trip to SoCal), the government trampling the will of the people, seizing control of major industries, attempting to seize even more (no, forget that, from now on I'm calling it what it is, stealing. The word seize when used in conjunction with government action can impart a veneer of legitimacy), stealing more and more of the fruits of our labors in order to fund vote buying schemes and economic power grabs, and actively seeking to suppress dissent(!) many people are, quietly mostly, wondering if we're circling the drain ourselves.

Well, we're not. At least, I don't think so. If another generation or two had passed before our current contretemps that might not be the case. Today, however, as the injuries and usurpations against the free people of this country mount, people are beginning to discover that they are indeed the descendants (spiritually if not genetically) of those who screamed, "Give me liberty or give me death!" and, "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country." Everywhere, people who never stood up to a bully in their lives are finding steel in their back bones and reserves of righteous indignation they never knew they had.

The people are pissed and are fighting back. Is it possible that the America we all love will never make a return? Yes, it is, but by all that is good and right, the bastards will have more of a fight than they can stomach.

A free people are hard to subjugate. A free and well armed people are a nightmare.

2 comments:

Larry said...

Alexander Tyler, writing about the fall of the Athenian Empire, said that the average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. So I guess we're still beating the odds a bit.

The whole quote is on Neal Boortz's website.

http://boortz.com/more/quotes.html under the heading of "Why I think voting should be restricted"

Aaron said...

That's a bit misleading. I think the Delian League itself lasted about 200 years, but that may be wrong. Fact is, Greek civilization existed for a long time. Not so much as an Empire, however.

Roman civilization lasted even longer. Hell, the Pax Romana lasted three hundred years and the Latin League had been around quite some time, united under Rome, before then. The Empire survived a long time even after that.

Leaving aside the eventual fracture, the Roman Empire existed for a long damn time.

Additionally, Egypt had a stable, lasting civilization for thousands of years. It didn't wane until Alexander showed up and took over the place.

In other words, civilizations are cyclic, they are not immune to entropy, but there is no time table their decline and collapse follows.