Political discussion thread

The public has become complacent with corruption and graft. Everyone knows that lobbyists rule, whether you are conservative, moderate or liberal. My grandparents are extremely conservative, but they don't trust politicians any more than I do. Yet no one does anything. People care more about Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan than Scooter Libby being pardoned for breaking the law, or New Orleans senator David Vitter's sex scandal. Ridiculous

You're right, they are not forced to do it. In a way that's worse, because these guys want to to this

Equality 7-2521 wrote: The unguarded borders, destruction of the old religion, decline of morals, overextension of military, many parrallels hopefully not the same end.

Edited by StyLaZyn - August 13 2007 at 11:33

StyLaZyn wrote: Equality 7-2521 wrote: The unguarded borders, destruction of the old religion, decline of morals, overextension of military, many parrallels hopefully not the same end.   A friend and I were discussing that illegal immigration has attributed to our outer borders being "invaded".  States like Florida, Arizona, California now have a huge latin impact. Much more than any other culture in the Great Melting Pot.  (He joked that we need to watch out for those Canadians.)   This high concentration now has tremendous impact on politics in those areas, much less than other states, such that a different agenda could develop.

fuxi wrote: thellama73 wrote: It seems like people my age today have essentially no moral values or principles of any kind. It's quite disturbing. Who are these "people" you are talking about? As far as I know, more than half of the U.S. population attend church regularly, so we must assume they have moral values of SOME kind... On the other hand, human morals have been deemed to be "in decline" ever since Adam and Eve were kicked out of paradise.

fuxi wrote: thellama73 wrote: It seems like people my age today have essentially no moral values or principles of any kind. It's quite disturbing. Who are these "people" you are talking about? As far as I know, more than half of the U.S. population attend church regularly, so we must assume they have moral values of SOME kind... On the other hand, human morals have been deemed to be "in decline" ever since Adam and Eve were kicked out of paradise.

I'm certain that there are nice moral kids out there, but they increasingly rare. When I was in college, everyone I knew engaged in heavy drug use, indescriminate sex with anyone who happened to be around, shoplifting and most of the girls had had abortions. They saw nothing wrong with lying cheating and stealing as long as it got them ahead.


Edited by thellama73 - August 13 2007 at 11:57

I found that this website had a few interesting comparisons.

thellama73 wrote: That site makes some interesting points, but I thin it's a mistake to blame capitalism, big corpoarations or suggest that Keynesian Economics are a good thing. The real problem as I see it (and which the site touches on) is too much governmental control and lack of personal responsibility. Everyone blames someone else for their problems. Health problems? Why not sue a doctor! America's youth turned into girls gone wild? Must be the movies' fault, not my bad parenting! Can't get a job? No worries, the government will bail you out! At least that's my view.

OK, if the Roman Empire and the US are the same, then what invading forces will overcome it? The Romans were weak and couldn't fight off the hordes of Vandals, Goths, etc. By my estimate, our military is still incredibly strong, and if our homeland were invaded by a conventional military, we could pull out Iraq soon enough and defend the US with all our force, and win. And as far as unconventional invaders, illegal Mexican immigrants are kept powerless, by intention or just the natural way of things, so I don't see what they could do about anything. As far as morals go, decadence abounds, but the ones in power love to espouse their adherence to traditional morality. Only 2 democratic candidates for president openly support gay marriage. We still have a very strong economy, and could rebound out of debt rather quickly if we didn't have this stupid war to deal with.

Sorry if I sound pedantic, but I'd like to debunk a common myth - the Roman Empire wasn't so much militarily invaded as we tend to think nowadays, as it 'imploded', so to say. When Romulus Augustolus was deposed in 469 A.D., there had already been a string of barbarian-born emperors, and the Roman army was comprised by more than half by people of barbarian descent.

As to the image of the 'hordes' invading the Empire, those migrations usually involved whole populations, including elderly people and children, who travelled with their belongings looking for more favourable conditions in which to settle down. In most cases, the impact of those migrations on the inhabitants of the various regions of the Empire was not particularly traumatic, and the people blended together after a short while.

This is much closer to what is happening in our own time - as Vico's theory of recurring cycles in the history of man would explain. Empires last for a given amount of time, then start getting weaker and weaker, and eventually they succumb and diminish to almost nothing. Traumatic ends, such as in the cause of the Austro-Hungarian empire after WWI, are quite rare.