An Interesting Parallel

"The victory over the Senate was easy and inglorious. Every eye and every passion was directed to the supreme magistrate, who possessed the arms and treasure of the state; whilst the senate, neither elected by the people, nor guarded by military force, nor animated by public spirit, rested its declining authority on the frail and crumbling basis of ancient opinion. The fine theory of a republic instensibly vanished, and made way for the more natural and substantial feelings of a monarchy. As the freedom and honours of Rome were successively communicated to the provinces, in which the old government had been either unknown, or was remembered with abhorrence, the tradition of republican maxims was gradually obliterated...
In the reign of Severus, the senate was filled with polished and eloquent slaves from the eastern provinces, who justified personal flattery by speculative principles of servitude. These new advocates of prerogative were heard with pleasure by the court, and with patience by the people, when they inculcated the duty of passive obedience, and descanted on the "inevitable mischiefs" of freedom. The lawyers and the historians concurred in teaching, that the Imperial authority was held, not by the delegated commission, but by the irrevocable resignations of the senate; that the emperor was freed from the restraint of civil laws, could command by his arbitrary will the lives and fortunes of his subjects, and might dispose of the empire as of his private patrimony. The most eminent of the civil lawyers flourished under the house of Severus; and the Roman jurisprudence, having closely united itself with the system of monarchy, was supposed to have attained full maturity and perfection."

So Gibbon writes in his book, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Despite the fact that he is describing events almost two thousand years ago, some eerie parallels can be drawn between the reign of Septimius Severus and the current U.S. Administration.

1.) "As the freedom and honours of Rome were successively communicated to the provinces, in which the old government had been either unknown, or was remembered with abhorrence, the tradition of republican maxims was gradually obliterated." This is Septimius Severus proclaiming universal citizenship to everyone inside Rome's borders. But President Obama is doing the same thing: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/09/obama-reforms-immigration , and has been for some time.

2.) Septimius Severus' government had polished speechmakers lecturing about the "Inevitable mischiefs" of freedom. He filled the Senate with those loyal to him, and used these appointees to attack his critics. That sounds kind of familiar too...

There are others as well: using the treasury to suit his whims, distracting the media from real issues with charisma, and letting the lawyers run amok on the public dime. But the final paragraph in the chapter (immediately following the two quoted at this article's beginning), Gibbon really sums it up:

"The contemporaries of Severus, in the enjoyment of the peace and glory of his reign, forgave the cruelties by which it had been introduced. Posterity, who experienced the fatal effects of his maxims and example, justly considered him as the principal author of the decline of the Roman empire."

World Enough and Time

One of my favorite instructors at my college recently loaned me a very interesting book. The book is "World Enough and Time" by Robert Penn Warren. I was reading it earlier, and I came across this passage. I thought it really summed up a few problems with mankind:

"But, on second thought, we may be like these [duelers]. We do not stand up at dawn, but we lie in a scooped-out hole in a tropical jungle and rot in the rain and wait for a steel pellet whipping through the fronds. We go down in the deep sea in a steel casket full of mechanisms like a watch and wait for the shudder of the depth charge. At five thousand feet in the air we ride a snarling motor into the veil of flak. For Hecuba may be something to us, after all.
For who is Hecuba, who is she, that all the swains adore her? She is whatever we must adore. Or if we adore nothing, she is what we must act as if we adored. And if we adore her, we must do so, not because we know her, but because we do not know her. If before we go out on our great design we lean to kiss her hand, she will always withdraw it and we must ride away to leave her brooding on a winter lawn. Or to regard the matter in a different light, we can never leave Hecuba. She is what we must carry in the breast, though we can never know her. She is our folly and our glory and despair. And if we do not adore her, we can adore nothing or only Silly Sal, who was found tasty in Bowling Green by the hot boys of the town."

Really deep stuff - a rather pessimistic view of mankind. I look forward to discussing this with my professor tomorrow!!

Global Stimulus

Mark Thoma's article about the G20 failing to produce an international stimulus package is laughable. What sort of imbecile believes that ANYONE is going to float the bill for a global version of the U.S. Economic stimulus policies? Any nation on this planet is capable of handing its' citizens money; simply refund their taxes for the last month, year, etc.

The point of the G20 summit was to try to restart the engines of global trade. If Mr. Thoma had bothered to do some research, he'd see the ignorance of his statement: STIMULUS PLANS DO NOT WORK. The first one didn't magically save the U.S. Economy. It also didn't work for Germany. Or for South Korea, where officials are admitting that these measures are essentially "the best option" that they have. Of course, handing the entire global population a check would definitely increase global spending - but it wouldn't end the financial problems that the world is facing; it would merely stave them off, even if such a ridiculous plan were enacted.

....And Again

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/03/business/main4918503.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories


Can't I have at least a SINGLE WEEK without hearing about a company that lost BILIONS of dollars in the last year paying out millions to "keep their top talent" around??

Everything I have to say about this, I've already said - what a mess.

The Worm Turns

Oh yeah....NOW we start to see the "harsh new regulations" on the banking industry:

http://www.businessinsider.com/banks-plan-to-bid-on-each-others-toxic-assets-with-taxpayer-money-2009-4

Public-private investment partnership? No, this is just another way for the bloated and corrupt financial sector to continue to rape the average taxpayer to the tune of billions of dollars. And why not? I mean, look at every other major company in this country that got "slapped" by the hard economy - failed industries who should NEVER HAVE GOTTEN A HANDOUT had billions of dollars handed to them, in order to let them CONTINUE TO FAIL??? Geithner keeps lobbying for more power to fire CEO's and such - but Rick Wagoner, the recently-fired CEO of GM, was also allowed to keep his severance pay and bonuses, which came out to him being paid roughly $20 Million just to leave.

When the corporations left the taxpayers out to dry, they got rewarded. The current administration is completely incompetent, and what's worse, they continue to operate in such a way that they're KILLING OUR ECONOMY. WHY are we throwing billions of dollars away on foolishness? Why is our moron President agreeing (as I write this) to global economic changes that will probably put us out ANOTHER couple of billion dollars (simply to float the globoal economy for another 6 months, given Obama's track record). Obama needs to clue up. His handlers need to EDUCATE HIM, instead of letting him be so D***** dependent on someone else's words on a teleprompter. He needs to actually start having opinions on things: (story here ). Frankly, if he can't run the country, we need to get him out of office and put someone in who's NOT a corrupt idiot.

The Islamic religion offers an unusual view of the signs leading up to the coming of the Anti-Christ:

People will stop offering prayers
Dishonesty will be the way of life
Falsehood will become a virtue
People will mortgage their faith for worldly gains
Usuary and bribery will become legitimate
Imbeciles would rule over the wise
Blood of innocents would be shed
Pride will be taken on acts of oppression
The rulers will be corrupt
The scholars will be hypocrites
Adultery will be rampant
Women will dress like men, and men will dress like women
The liars and treacherous will be respected
There will be acute famine at the time

If there's anything to this Hadith, then we should all watch out - but I'm not one to speculate on such things. I don't feel like being "right-wing religious nut" today, but I thought that it was an interesting little bit of information.

Someone, ANYONE in the government: please start acting responsibly. I give you guys my tax-money, I vote for you and let you have control over me at a national level. We all do - it's part of being a citizen. But you won't always be in charge. The next generation will eventually take that power from you (in the same way you took it from the last generation). And when we're in charge, you'll want us to be responsible with your and your family's money. You'll want us to be good leaders that won't cripple your children's children with unnecessary debts and foolish, false ideas about "responsibility".

So start setting a good example, already!!