VoiceOfAntarctica on Nostr: Some people say that our times resemble the decline of ancient Rome. Others agree but ...

Some people say that our times resemble the decline of ancient Rome. Others agree but say that the comparable historical period is not really the decline of the imperial Rome in 5th century CE (the famous “fall of Rome”), but the decline of the Roman republic in the last centuries and decades BC. This topic caught my attention. There was a terrible snowstorm here for a couple of weeks, so I had time to re-read the history of the decline of the Roman republic. What I read was…. somewhat disturbing.

Ancient Roman state was a republic since very old times (510 BC?) till let’s say 31 BC when Octavian became de facto ruler of the Roman state and started to create imperial Rome. In sum the reason why the Roman republic declined was the inability to solve the problems of the day which I would call social-power problems. Problems involving the position, situation and relationships of various interest groups. A Marxist would probably call it class problems or something like this but there was more in it than class.

Example: there was a reformer called Gaius Gracchus who, among other, tried to solve the position of the people of Italy who were not citizens of Rome but often had tremendous merit in fighting for Rome in wars. He was explained by the established classes the this was far too radical and not important anyway and was killed. What ensued was terrible civil war (90-87 BC) that forced the state to solve the problem by offering citizenship to more people in Italy. I am simplifying the rather complex history, but you see the pattern: inability to solve a hard social problem in a peaceful and legal way lead to catastrophic civil war.

Comparison to the contemporary situation is disturbing. Inability to solve hard social issues is something we see all around ourselves. The basically degressive taxation, with billionaires evading taxes by using trusts and other aggressive tax strategies. In Europe, the massive costs of so-called Green Deal that will burden the middle class, with every billionaire already knowing how to make money in the “Green” economy by using subsidies. And you can continue. The feeling of injustice is pervading the Western world with many falling for conspiracy theories or trusting that the best friend of Epstein will release the Epstein files and purify American politics. Some want the rule of strong hand outright, a new Caesar, or Octavian.

If you continue reading my notes, I will explain a possible solution I see. It will involve a certain change of the political system, but a much different from the illusions mentioned above. Stay tuned.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!