The American Roman Empire: Is It in Decline?

(Tonight's discussion will begin with a presentation.)

As George Santayana (Spanish-American philosopher) famously said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” External and internal stressors over time killed the western Roman Empire and it can be argued today that America is facing similar, if not the very same kinds of deconstruction. While Gibbons declared heretical Christianity and German Barbarians were to blame for the western Roman decline and fall, in America today one can easily see a comparison to Marxists or Fascists and illegal criminal aliens or terrorist cells. I give you Sydney J. Harris’ famous quote on how the pattern of history is similar, however, there are subtle changes like a virus that mutates over time. “History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.”

Comparison and contrasting of Eastern and Western Rome will delineate the differences in both empires. Just as clear is the distinction between right (conservative) and left (progressive) in the USA. However, those differences will also give us solutions to the fall of empires both past and present. After the presentation I leave you with a few questions to ponder for the discussion:

• Is American hegemony in decline? Or are we rising again? Great again? Why?
• Are there clear parallels to Rome’s fall?
• What solutions do we have for our current decline?
• How do empires maintain hegemony?

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In addition to the main topic (above), we also provide breakout rooms at 8pm as follows:
“Philosophy” – philosophy and its applications
“Town Square” – politics and current events
“Conference Room” – open for anything
“The Lounge” – light social chat