Let’s live our beliefs
In a decadent society, which we live in today, gone is the will to believe, resist, contend, fight and struggle. There is the desire to conform, drift, follow, yield and give up. The same condition prevailed in Rome before she fell. Her standards were abandoned, the family disintegrated, divorce prevailed, immorality was rampant, and faith was very low.
Today there is much talk of religion, but we should not only talk of religion, we should also practice it. In other words, walk the talk.
Nick Nicholson
McLeansville
Comments (6)
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one could argue Rome fell BECAUSE of religion ...
one would also then be presenting a shallow argument
Posted on November 2, 2008 3:21 AM
Come on JDR. Get off of Daylight saving time and get on standard time (why is it called standard time if we only do it fewer months than DST?)
Rome was decadent long before they fell and grew as an empire during that period. The lesson I've always gotten from Rome that compared to us was that Rome got overextended with its military expenditures , it split then finally collapsed. We have borne for years paying for a military that cost approximately 1/2 of all of the military spending in the world. I doubt that's sustainable.
Posted on November 2, 2008 4:31 AM
I've heard two theories of Rome, not mutually exclusive:
1 - They took more than they gave. Their power was military and their wealth was mostly stolen. There was some production, but it was slaves doing all the work. Eventually all that thievery caught up with the Romans - no one like them and every weakness was exploited.
2 - The final lengths of their water system was lead pipe, and the Romans - who were the only ones with water - went nuts.
btw - it was a very class society with the ratio of slaves to basters being a very high number.
Posted on November 2, 2008 7:16 AM
Societies decline when their citizens get fat/lazy and focus on selfish luxury comforts. A revolution usually fixes that. Civilizations decline when the masses as a whole are focused on comfort and forget the skills of self-reliance.
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Posted on November 2, 2008 10:19 AM
The Christians were walking the walk and talking in the Senate when Rome fell. Byzantium, France, Germany, Britain, Russia fell with Christians running the torture chambers. Learn to crawl before you walk and STFU before you learn to talk. And dont talk while the grownups are talking.
Posted on November 2, 2008 7:36 PM
Hugh wrote "Civilizations decline when the masses as a whole are focused on comfort and forget the skills of self-reliance". I think this is a correct starting point. Gibbon noted many factors. Other strong contributing factors were the concentration of wealth in an elite, elites no longer serving in the military, dependence on imports, too low taxes and deficit spending.
There were many more, so pick your favorites.
Chucka, what history books are you reading
"France, Germany, Britain, Russia" fell with "Christians running the torture chambers"? I will cede the Eastern Romans but the others did not fall as a result of "Christians running the torture chambers". Not even a large contributing factor in any of these cases.
Do not equate "the Church" with Christianity. Christ would drive the people from our "churches".
There are virtually no Christian churches anywhere on earth. It's far too difficult a path to follow.
How many do you know who even really try?
Posted on November 3, 2008 9:06 AM