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America Falling Like Rome?
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Sunday, June 29
Theresa Komor
I scour the daily headlines looking for the stuff that might slip through the cracks, stuff that might be important. Take another look, because things aren't always the way they seem.
8 comments:
In my new post I try to reply to some of the topics arisen in that
discussion.
Regards
MoR
MoR, I'm not sure I understand where you are going with your post. How did the Roman Empire fall?
The discussion on The Commentator is very enlightening. It appears to be attracting some very illuminated minds.
Join us, won't you?
Theresa
> I'm not sure I understand where you are going with your post
Well, I am concentrating on analogies of decline (Western decline = Roman decline = spiritual void = new cults arising etc.) and what seems to happen in the minds of the people involved (more than in their economies etc.).
Seen from here this spiritual decline is palpable. Maybe less from across the ocean, since American people are younger (this is their tremendous charm, after all) and still have strong beliefs (or so it seems to me).
>The discussion on The Commentator is very enlightening … Join us, won't you?
Well, I have already joined it. I will continue when I've finished my tomorrow post … or I might do it tonight, we’ll see.
Ciao e grazie
Man of Roma
PS
I forgot you asked: "How did the Roman Empire fall?".
Well, it was not choked by its own slow decline. It was assassinated abruptly because of some serious mistakes it made. Without these mistakes it would have last at least 1000 years longer, as the Eastern side of the Roman Empire did. This also maybe can teach a lesson ...
I would think there is a direct relationship between the spiritual decline of America and the rise of Obama. I am just back from Unity where I got to shake his hand.
Mr. McKenty, I wrote about Obama presenting himself as a charismatic cult leader in Obama Democratic Nominee?, and it's a good possibility that he will woo the people along his way.
Please, both you and MoR, help me to understand how you are defining 'spiritual decline.' Awhile back, I read one blogger that said the decline in attending church has an isolating effect on the people, as it is such a social thing. Besides that, I don't consider the lack of faith in organized religion that much of a detriment.
I firmly believe that it is more education than membership in organized religion that determines level or morality. However, the rise of a cult-like personality such as Obama can fill the void religion leaves behind for those externally motivated enough to need that void filled by something else.
Mr. McK, It's said that much can be told by a hand shake. What did you sense when you shook Obama's hand?
A definition of spiritual decline? ... do not know if I can reach a useful definition. Surely it is not the decline in attending organized religions' rituals. I'd rather talk of cultural decline, since it encompasses all cultural events, not only religious ones.
I would think that cultural decline is when a society is confused and there is no clear shared set of goals, beliefs and values (cultural decline is of course concurrent with political, economical etc. decline).
What I can see here in Europe is this ethical confusion. People do not know any more which is the right conduct and the good living. How can we in fact explain that so many people are unhappy despite the fact that they possess what is necessary to live, and sometimes even much more than that?
It seems to me that they do not know any more which are the right and the wrong choices in everyday life. This is ethical confusion. We have no guide, no point of reference any more.
Very tough topic, in any case, and the risk of saying stupid things very high.
All the best
MoR
MoR, even Sociology can't decide on a definition of "culture," and so it would be difficult to say whether a culture is in decline. A different aspect of the same can be said about the way people describe themselves, and it's usually by what they do for employment, not who they really are as a person.
Knowing right from wrong is a combination of internal, integrated morals and values and the external adoptions that comprise character. Everyone has a notion of what is and isn't right, though it may go against generally accepted social norms. This may be more of a lack of social interaction than limited guides or references. Divide and conquer.
There is nothing stupid to say - everything is relevant.
Theresa
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