American in the year 2014
Pick one of the topics below and use it to compare to American in the year 2014. It has often been claimed that the United States is going down the same path to collapse, as did the Roman Republic. Through your choice of topic, do some research on the subject vis–vis the United States and make some conclusions about whether the country is indeed suffering from the same malaise as Rome, or if not, why not (in other words why are we different?). Do give specific examples to back up your opinions, and do follow the precepts of grammatical structure and Chicago style, particularly in use of foot- or endnotes.
Politics as the Road to Personal Wealth: During the late Roman Republic period, one of the main roads to wealth was holding public office, and exploiting such positions to accumulate personal wealth. Congressman, Senators and their staffs leverage their government service to move to private sector positions that pay three to ten times their government compensation.
Given this financial arrangement, Their focus is therefore not so much on the people who sent them to Washington. Their focus is instead on those who will make them rich. (Republic Lost)
Continuous War: A national state of security arises, distracting attention from domestic challenges with foreign wars.
Similar to the late Roman Republic, the US for the past 100 years has either been fighting a war, recovering from a war, or preparing for a new war: WW I (1917-18), WW II (1941-1945), Cold War (1947-1991), Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam (1953-1975), Gulf War (1990-1991), Afghanistan (2001-ongoing), and Iraq (2003-2011). And, this list is far from complete.Collapse of the Middle Class: In the period just before the Roman Republics fall, the Roman middle class was crushed destroyed by cheap overseas slave labor. In our own day, weve witnessed rising income inequality, a stagnating middle class, and the loss of American jobs to overseas workers who are paid less and have fewer rights.
Loss of the Spirit of Compromise: The Roman Republic, like ours, relied on a system of checks and balances. Compromise is needed for this type of system to function. In the end, the Roman Republic lost that spirit of compromise, with politics increasingly polarized between Optimates (the rich, entrenched elites) and Populares (the common people). Sound familiar?
Compromise is in noticeably short supply in our own time also. For example, There were more filibusters between 2009 and 2010 than there were in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s combined.
A Decline in moral values: Certainly contemporary writers ascribed Romes political difficulties during the last century of the Republic to failures of character, specifically to ambitio (ambition), avaritia (greed), luxuria (extravagance), and libido (lust).10 For example, in his De Republica, Cicero cries, Quid enim manet ex antiquis moribus, quibus ille dixit rem stare Romanam?11. Sallust explains the source of this moral decline in his monograph De Bello Catilinae:Therefore as the result of riches, luxury and greed, united with insolence, took possession of our young manhood. They
pillaged, squandered; set little value on their own, coveted the goods of others; they disregarded modesty, chastity, every- thing human and divine; in short, they were utterly thoughtless and reckless.12