Cullen Murphy has written a new booking asking, Are We Rome? On his site, he answers some related questions, like, What are some of the similarities you see between America and Rome?:
One of them is the way we both view ourselves as the center of the world — the place the entire planet revolves around. This leaves us blind to what’s going on beyond our borders, and makes us think we’re more powerful than we are — makes us think we can always act alone. Another similarity is the strange nature of our capital cities. Washington and Rome are both economically pointless, engorged on vast revenues, detached from the nation at large, and obsessed with image and status. Washington even looks like Rome, and in August it feels like Rome. A third similarity is the way more and more of the things that government is supposed to do are being put into private hands — in the end, government stops being able to function, and things get done only when money changes hands. This is happening right before our eyes. We’re selling off highways, airports, and naming rights in national parks. Hired guards far outnumber police. Money secures public office, and public office secures money. A Roman would have felt right at home.
I don’t share his thoughts on privatization — I believe he conflates corruption and privatization — but, judging from his NPR interview, he seems to understand the basic point Orson Scott Card noted a few months back in How Our Civilization Can Fall:
There’s a right way and a wrong way to learn from history.The wrong way is to make an analogy between some event in the past and our present situation, and then assume that everything will work the same.
For instance: Rome was the hyperpower of the ancient world, and it fell, so we’re going to fall, too!
Analogies might make an interesting point or raise an intriguing possibility, but they prove nothing. America is like Rome in some ways, and radically different in others. You can’t just ignore the differences and think you’ve said anything smart.