WHILE totally inappropriate, I take some satisfaction in seeing the West, and particularly the United States, imploding before our eyes. This is because it strengthens the premise that the economic and political cycle is moving the center of global power to Asia.
In his epic The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, English historian Edward Gibbon attempted to make sense of why the longest, largest and strongest empire in history crumbled to dust. There are some interesting parallels between then and now.
Gibbon postulated that, as Christianity took root with the belief in a better life after death, it created an attitude of indifference toward the individual making a sacrifice. Government is now the Divine Being that is expected to provide for all the peoples’ needs. With the movement toward a “guaranteed income” supplied by government, why would anyone make the sacrifice of a life of labor to build the nation’s economy for future generations? Prayers to the gods have been replaced by votes for the government officials.
The once important and ancient concept of “civic virtue”—the dedication of citizens to the common welfare even at the cost of their individual interests —no longer exists in the West.
The Roman Praetorian Guard is seen by Gibbon as a cause of the empire’s initial decay and eventual collapse. Originally designed as an elite military unit to protect the empire, it evolved into a political force answerable to the emperor but also becoming so powerful as to select who should become emperor before any input by the Roman Senate. The Guard acted as the government’s secret police. Today when the government wants to monitor the people and their opinions and actions, it calls Google, Facebook and the cell-phone network providers.
In return, government privacy laws are “flexible”, as those companies use your personal information in the hunt for profits. Where is the line between “big business” and “big government”?
The fall of Rome tracked the debasement of the currency. As Martin Armstrong writes, “During the Republican days, 25 denarii paid 52 percent of the cost of his family’s annual needs for grain. By the 3rd century AD, it would take 6,000 denarii to create the same standard of living”. In 75 AD, the Roman Denarius was 95-percent silver; by 268 AD, the silver content was virtually zero.
The relative purchasing power of the US dollar in 1913 was 100 cents. Today it is 4 cents.
However, as my good friend Ambassador “Teddy Boy” Locsin Jr. argues, the US and, by extension, the West has the strongest military in the world. Yet, the hard and large US military did not keep China from seizing the South China Sea. “Hard and large” did not prevent Russia from taking Crimea. And no, Russia is not part of the West. Gibbon also argues the Romans lost their “military sprit”, unwilling to wield the hard and large military power at their disposal.
The cycles keep on turning toward Asia as the decline and fall of the West continues. The global political and economic center of gravity has always moved from ancient Persia 2,500 years ago and now once again back to Asia.
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