This was posted in 2010, and naturally the host site censored it in the intervening years. I have some quibbles with how the author mapped out the Roman timeline to ours, but that's mostly because I have 13 years of hindsight that the author didn't. The extent of the damage Bathhouse Barry and Big Mike did also wouldn't have been fully apparent back then. The parts where he describes the destruction of the family unit by no fault divorce is particularly prescient, because it's even more obvious now than it was in 2010. There's a reason I say that we haven't seen unrestrained female nature on display since the fall of Rome instead of ever. The cultural rot we're experiencing is by no means unprecedented.
~5 century Rome = present day America. America is ruled by an elite of cognitive jackpot winners who use the President as a puppet.
I don't think the jackpot was cognitive, it was social influence. Other than that Traitor Joe makes this dynamic fucking obvious.
The parts where he describes the destruction of the family unit by no fault divorce is particularly prescient, because it's even more obvious now than it was in 2010.
It's definitely prescient to talk about something that had been going on for decades.
The cultural rot we're experiencing is by no means unprecedented.
It actually is unprecedented. The difference is that the industrial revolution has enabled this sort of rot, because there is such a surplus that societies can get away with being rotten more.
The fact that 16 people actually believed that Europe fell into the "Bronze Age" after the fall of the Roman Empire, based on an anonymous comment on Reddit, shows that we really are no better than the people who blindly believe the MSM.
I don't even know where to begin, but just a small selection of the bullcrap:
Rome (obviously) was not 'matriarchal' nor 'feminist' at any time, and certainly not before the collapse of the West. Furthermore, the eastern half survived, so I guess the 'matriarchy' didn't destroy that part.
Citizens definitely needed to work in the 1st century BC. This was just a few decades after the reforms of Gracchus, which were intended to give... landless citizens land, and after the reforms of Marius, which recruited landless people into the army. So much for "they did not need to work". They lived in overcrowded firetraps called insulae, often in pestilential (malarial) areas.
Rome never appreciated "democracy". It was not a democracy, it was a republic (an oligarchy).
The Crisis of the 3rd Century is positioned after the arrival of Catholicism (Christianity) as the state religion, when it actually ended a century before (284).
There is obviously no 'Great Inquisition'. The Crusades were not religious zealotry, they were defensive. People did not live in caves after the fall of the Roman Empire. "Science" did not exist, philosophy had long abated before the fall of Rome, and "human rights" are a modern invention.
For the most part, you are right, but I must point out that "democracy" is just a nice way of saying oligarchic republic, since every form of government is some form of elite rule. In the Roman Republic, just as in the American Republic, democracy means plutocracy: the rule of wealthy elites by means of the media.
It would be nice if real democracy, i.e. the rule of the people, were possible, but it just isn't.
But you're saying true democracy. If you acknowledge that the general population is against grooming, BLM and endless wars, while the political class is close to unanimously in favor, then the general population certainly is less retarded and more democracy is good.
For the most part, you are right, but I must point out that "democracy" is just a nice way of saying oligarchic republic, since every form of government is some form of elite rule.
Absolutely correct, although I've made this same argument and there are some people here who actually believe that modern "democracies" mean that the people rule. I've long believed that Western countries were not democratic at all, because I see that they are totally unresponsive to their populations. I just did not know why, until I read Burnham's Machiavellians, which your comments also sound simialr to.
My point was that Rome was not a 'democracy' even by the quite pitiful standards of modern times.
In the Roman Republic, just as in the American Republic, democracy means plutocracy: the rule of wealthy elites by means of the media.
That certainly is true of the American republic.
It would be nice if real democracy, i.e. the rule of the people, were possible, but it just isn't.
I agree. But there's still ways to be more and less democratic, and the current situation is rather egregious. For example, my country is a member of the EU, and as a result we're even less democratic than we were before, and there's even less accountability.
Eh... there were a lot of idiotic mistakes made by Roman leaders throughout their history that eventually came to bite them in the ass. And I'm not just talking about the more obvious cases of insane Emperors who were so stupid that they ended up being eliminated the Praetorian Guard.
Most of these mistakes had little to nothing to do with women or feminism afaik. More often it had to do with political shortcuts, greed, ego, and lack of foresight. And quite a few isolated cases of extremely bad luck.
Rome parallels are interesting and relevant, but the women stuff could use sources for a more precise and proportional perspective. The Roman Empire is the preeminent example of leftist indulgence gradually dragging down civilization.
Innate human rights were a gradual build up. Laozi formulated much of it early on in the Orient, but I'm not an expert on far Eastern culture so I make no further claim there. Christianity was very important to the idea natural rights; I abhor the capital-a Atheists that lack the wisdom to not take enlightenment for granted.
Just for fun, I checked if any of the comments knew anything of history. Turns out, they did.
Comment 1:
Feudalism was based around land/ farming and was associated with medieval Europe. (ie- after the fall of Rome.) Feudalism is all about farming and they were sedendary peasants not travelling foragers.
Not exactly right, but mostly - feudalism is based on the lord-vassal relationship, but obviously, that deals with with farming land.
The emancipation of women and children in Rome. Huh? Rome did not have anything close to a 19th or 20th century concept of individual rights for women and children. (or men) Totally different understanding of rights and citizenship. There was no modern day understanding of “human rights.”
And places like colonial British North America had child support laws. The existance of those laws don’t necessarily tell you anything about the legal status of women and children. All they mean is that politcally connected fathers of daughers wanted compensation for the loss of her labor and the cost of raising the child. It was compensation for a transgression of the rights of fathers.
Puritan Massachusetts and Conneticut had fairly generous divorce laws in place. Men were punished for fornication & bastardy and were docked money for child support. Do you think the Puritans were a bunch of feminists?
Rome was a slaveholding society throughout its history with all of the associated hierarchies. Whadaya mean a concept of individual/human rights?
The cause-effect of feminism and historical change are underanalyzed in this post. (And feminism/ human rights are not well defined.) The Industrial Revoloution and the growth of human rights are ignored. And, as we know, Rome never experienced that particular historical change.
By 1860 a women’s rights movement was well underway in the USA, operating in conjunction with the anti-abolition movement. It wasn’t 20th century second-wave feminism that profoundly changed the world in terms of child/women’s rights — it was the 19th century industrial revolution.
Comment 2:
seriously, i hate feminism as much as the next man (i mean man, not feminized reader of NYBT) and love Rome and roman culture as much as the next Italian (i am Italian myself), but this dude does not know what he’s talking about.
Material wealth is astounding (by ancient standards) but the rest is bullshit. Citizens do need to work. The only ones who do not need to work are a small fraction of the population (maybe 5%-10%) who enjoy aristocratic power or official positions and owns much land administered by their slaves or rented out. The rest of the citizens (I am excluding the slaves) need to work the land (80% of the population is made up by farmers) to have a livelihood. In Rome lives also a sizable number of ‘have-nots’ who either have to join the military or work as servant or thugs for the rich elite in order to survive.
Democracy? Rome was ruled by a small elite of aristocrats who constantly fought against each other causing repeated bloodshed in the city. The plebs only elect two tribunes who have veto power on some issues but no other power. The rest of the officials are members of the aristocracy.
Human rights? Difficult issue. Romans do not have human rights per se’ (political enemies constantly killed each other) nor a constitution that guarantees life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They had some political rights and there was a widespread use of courts to settle matters, but they have no developed idea of human right but rather of privileges, honors and duties associated with social positions.
Animal rights? Yeah, right.
Science? unfortunately Rome did not know science as it is, or ever really developed scientific method. The only thing they had is technical development caused by engineering and agricultural improvements (which again was unprecedented by historical standards but dwarfed by what the Anglos have done from 1600 on).
I stop here with a simple consideration: the fall of the Roman empire has probably more to do with the inherent instability of their political system (they were never able to find a system -or a culture- that guarantees pacific and stable transfer of power) and the technological problem of governing an empire that covered most of Europe and modern Middle East (think about it: the Empire went from Scotland to Iraq. Would a modern State be able to govern that, even with modern technology? I doubt it)
This was posted in 2010, and naturally the host site censored it in the intervening years. I have some quibbles with how the author mapped out the Roman timeline to ours, but that's mostly because I have 13 years of hindsight that the author didn't. The extent of the damage Bathhouse Barry and Big Mike did also wouldn't have been fully apparent back then. The parts where he describes the destruction of the family unit by no fault divorce is particularly prescient, because it's even more obvious now than it was in 2010. There's a reason I say that we haven't seen unrestrained female nature on display since the fall of Rome instead of ever. The cultural rot we're experiencing is by no means unprecedented.
I don't think the jackpot was cognitive, it was social influence. Other than that Traitor Joe makes this dynamic fucking obvious.
It's definitely prescient to talk about something that had been going on for decades.
It actually is unprecedented. The difference is that the industrial revolution has enabled this sort of rot, because there is such a surplus that societies can get away with being rotten more.
Friendly reminder: this is absolute bullcrap.
The fact that 16 people actually believed that Europe fell into the "Bronze Age" after the fall of the Roman Empire, based on an anonymous comment on Reddit, shows that we really are no better than the people who blindly believe the MSM.
I don't even know where to begin, but just a small selection of the bullcrap:
For the most part, you are right, but I must point out that "democracy" is just a nice way of saying oligarchic republic, since every form of government is some form of elite rule. In the Roman Republic, just as in the American Republic, democracy means plutocracy: the rule of wealthy elites by means of the media.
It would be nice if real democracy, i.e. the rule of the people, were possible, but it just isn't.
Considering how retarded the average person is, true democracy wouldn't be any better
But would we be having grooming in schools, BLM and endless wars?
The average person may not be brilliant, but he has a measure of common sense that the elites and the wealthy lack.
Yes. Because the general population is retarded.
Think about how many people approve of dems right now, and will keep voting for them.
But you're saying true democracy. If you acknowledge that the general population is against grooming, BLM and endless wars, while the political class is close to unanimously in favor, then the general population certainly is less retarded and more democracy is good.
I don't think more than 50% of the general population is against those things, because democrats are retarded.
Absolutely correct, although I've made this same argument and there are some people here who actually believe that modern "democracies" mean that the people rule. I've long believed that Western countries were not democratic at all, because I see that they are totally unresponsive to their populations. I just did not know why, until I read Burnham's Machiavellians, which your comments also sound simialr to.
My point was that Rome was not a 'democracy' even by the quite pitiful standards of modern times.
That certainly is true of the American republic.
I agree. But there's still ways to be more and less democratic, and the current situation is rather egregious. For example, my country is a member of the EU, and as a result we're even less democratic than we were before, and there's even less accountability.
This is boomer tier nonsense OP, please stop channeling Imp.
I thought Gays did?
Eh... there were a lot of idiotic mistakes made by Roman leaders throughout their history that eventually came to bite them in the ass. And I'm not just talking about the more obvious cases of insane Emperors who were so stupid that they ended up being eliminated the Praetorian Guard.
Most of these mistakes had little to nothing to do with women or feminism afaik. More often it had to do with political shortcuts, greed, ego, and lack of foresight. And quite a few isolated cases of extremely bad luck.
Rome parallels are interesting and relevant, but the women stuff could use sources for a more precise and proportional perspective. The Roman Empire is the preeminent example of leftist indulgence gradually dragging down civilization.
Innate human rights were a gradual build up. Laozi formulated much of it early on in the Orient, but I'm not an expert on far Eastern culture so I make no further claim there. Christianity was very important to the idea natural rights; I abhor the capital-a Atheists that lack the wisdom to not take enlightenment for granted.
Just for fun, I checked if any of the comments knew anything of history. Turns out, they did.
Comment 1:
Not exactly right, but mostly - feudalism is based on the lord-vassal relationship, but obviously, that deals with with farming land.
Comment 2:
I was going to say contraception and inflation, but okay.