Via the Financial Times: Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned
David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.
[...]
Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.
I can’t disagree with some of the basic assessment, specifically military over-extension and fiscal irresponsibility; however, every generation decries the decline of values, yet historically I don’t see humanity as any less moral now than it was millennia ago). Beyond that I cannot begin to express to you how tired I am of the collapse of the Roman Empire analogies. Most people don’t have a clue about what did or did not cause the collapse of Rome, but rather are simply aware of the basic cliche and feel the license to deploy it at will. Further, there is usually a radical over-emphasis on the “moral decline” element, which, as noted, I simply don’t buy. People always have a far rosier memory/perception of the past than is warranted.
Setting aside the issue of whether people really know anything about the fall of Rome, the notion that there is an adequate political and economic continuity between a modern state and one that existed roughly two millennia ago is analytically absurd on its face.
Daniel Drezner shares my disdain for the application of the comparison:
Analysts have been comparing the United States to a decaying, declining Roman empire ifor close to forty years now. It has become so clichéd that, according to a little-known DC ordinance, anyone who makes the analogy inside the beltway is forced to listen to either Robert Kuttner or George Will pontificate for an entire hour on its historical appropriateness.
Quite frankly, that seems like a radically insufficient punishment.
Still, Dan suggests reading the whole report. I have to confess, the Roman Empire thing has so turned me off, I think I will need to cool off a bit before so doing…
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August 14th, 2007 at 11:21 am
The thing that struck me about this is the fact that it is the Comptroller General making the parallel!
I would expect as much from a second-tier presidential candidate or a pseudo-intellectual like Newt Gingrich. But I would think that the head of a non-partisan, investigatory body who spent years at Arthur Andersen would be reluctant to wade into the analogy waters.
There is enough evidence of contemporary problems with governance in the country to waste one’s time inveighing stupid analogies!
August 14th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
[...] Read whole (original) post: Dr. Steven Taylor [...]
August 14th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Roman Empire Mythology
David Walker, the comptroller general, has created quite a stir with his recent GAO report, “Transforming Government to Meet the Demands of the 21st Century,” [PDF] which says that the United States is going the way of the Roman Empire.
Ame…
August 14th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Roman Empire Mythology
David Walker, the comptroller general, has created quite a stir with his recent GAO report, “Transforming Government to Meet the Demands of the 21st Century,” [PDF] which says that the United States is going the way of the Roman Empire.
Ame…
August 14th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
The Roman Empire simply died of old age. People just moved on.
August 15th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Even more tiresome than comparing X to Nazi Germany?
Well. . . I guess I can buy that; but both are rather sad.