Rome took centuries to “fall” (and another millennium for the other half). From the death of Marcus Aurelius and the stability of his reign in 180 CE to the death of the last Western Emperor Julius Nepos and formal dissolution in 480 CE, it still lasted longer than the US’ entire lifespan so far. Hell, the Crisis of the Third Century started ~230CE, still leaving us with 250 years.
We’ll see how quickly the US will actually fall. I don’t believe it will be quick, but I’m sure there will be interesting lessons for future historians to draw.
Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do know history are doomed to see it being repeated no matter how many warnings they gave.
Those who do know it are doomed to hope for a plot twist.
History doesn’t entirely repeat the same exact way. There’s always a little variation. Sometimes, the result looks identical, but sometimes something has changed (for better or worse). We can try to talk about it, keep warning people, maybe learn from past attempts at warning to see what we can improve. We can try to find ways to at least shift the cycle, even if we might not be able to break it.
Because one lesson that we can learn from many successes and far more failures is that persistence, the will to keep going despite setbacks, is critical to any effort at change, be it military, civil or even just attempting to eat healthy. It’s not the only important bit, but nothing will change if we don’t try.
Rome took centuries to “fall” (and another millennium for the other half). From the death of Marcus Aurelius and the stability of his reign in 180 CE to the death of the last Western Emperor Julius Nepos and formal dissolution in 480 CE, it still lasted longer than the US’ entire lifespan so far. Hell, the Crisis of the Third Century started ~230CE, still leaving us with 250 years.
We’ll see how quickly the US will actually fall. I don’t believe it will be quick, but I’m sure there will be interesting lessons for future historians to draw.
Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do know history are doomed to see it being repeated no matter how many warnings they gave.
Those who do know it are doomed to hope for a plot twist.
History doesn’t entirely repeat the same exact way. There’s always a little variation. Sometimes, the result looks identical, but sometimes something has changed (for better or worse). We can try to talk about it, keep warning people, maybe learn from past attempts at warning to see what we can improve. We can try to find ways to at least shift the cycle, even if we might not be able to break it.
Because one lesson that we can learn from many successes and far more failures is that persistence, the will to keep going despite setbacks, is critical to any effort at change, be it military, civil or even just attempting to eat healthy. It’s not the only important bit, but nothing will change if we don’t try.