I wrote this during George W. Bush’s second term in office, but most of the arguments tend to remain the same no matter who the president is anymore.

The education system of the United States has been in decline for quite some time. In fact, some might argue that it never did enough, and the average person knows about as much as they can pick up from television on a day-to-day basis. But most people know something about the ancient Roman Empire – at least the fact that it fell. The reasons historians claim why the Empire faded into obscurity are various, and anyone reading them today must be forced to ask, “How did they not see this coming?”

If one were to study present history, however, especially under the administration of George W. Bush, one could probably say the exact same thing about the United States itself. This country has succumbed to many of the same blatant errors in policy and judgment that the Romans did, and while many conservatives will predictably deny this, keep in mind that it took hundreds of years for these mistakes to finally catch up with them, so, arguably, the U.S. still has some time left; how much time is simply a matter of how long it takes these problems to finally come to a head. The following is an extremely brief overview of said comparison.

Management of Wealth

Probably the most obvious parallel between the U.S. and Rome is their mindless focus on military spending. The Roman Empire basically tried to stretch itself too thin, conquering lands as far away as (modern day) Britain, Germany, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf, and then tried to maintain control over them all. With the government spending so much money retaining the army, little was left to spend on the Roman people themselves, who were in desperate need of better public housing, maintained roads and aqueducts, improved healthcare, etc.

Instead of simply giving up these lands or granting more control to those who lived there, they punished the Roman people for their mistakes by increasing taxes, thus causing ridiculous inflation. With the rich using their gold to create luxury furniture and adornments for their palace-like homes, there was less gold to put into making Roman coins, which decreased the value of the money, forcing merchants to raise the prices of standard goods. With money practically worthless, the people resorted to a crude barter system, reimbursing salaries with food and clothing and paying their taxes with whatever groceries they could spare. With the citizens’ morale at an all-time low, the Empire hired anyone they could to protect their borders, which were under constant attack by conquered peoples. With an army made up of unemployed mobs and foreigners, they became increasingly expensive to maintain and totally unreliable.

When the United States government was handed over to the Bush administration, the country was in a billion-dollar surplus. Bush already had plans, however, predating September 11th, to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, the man who “attacked his daddy,” despite how much this would cost the taxpayers. Once September 11th occurred and the country was on high alert, Bush took the initiative and asked Congress for millions of dollars to begin the War on Terror, which quickly moved from Afghanistan and into Iraq. His “millions” quickly became “billions,” and at present day, the prediction of future spending is in the trillions. This has, of course, led to less spending on the American people themselves, despite the need for less-expensive healthcare and other daily necessities, such as gasoline. While the president sees “no evidence of price gouging” at the pumps, Exxon-Mobile releases record profits.

Tax cuts continue to be made for these big corporations and the rich continue to get richer with more and more legislation protecting the lifestyle they have become accustomed to. Big corporations are either taking their jobs oversees or hiring illegal immigrants right here in the states, who can become an increasing burden on taxpaying citizens and are persistently protected by the president and his cronies, who continue to show that they are businessmen first and representatives of the people second. The poor and middle class continue to struggle, sending the approval ratings of the president and his war into the gutter. Instead of simply pulling the troops out and admitting that the United States is only capable of controlling so many people overseas, Bush continues to spend more money on this increasingly lost cause while ignoring the immediate needs of his own citizens, such as rapid relief for Hurricane Katrina victims. Even the value of the American dollar worldwide has decreased in under a decade.

Political Corruption

The selection of a new emperor was always a problem that plagued the Roman Empire. There was no exact system behind these elections: just the old emperor, the Senate, the Praetorian Guard, and the army arguing over who should rule. Ultimately, the Praetorian Guard, who was the emperor’s own private army, became the total authority on who became the next emperor, and their loyalty was rewarded by the next emperor, which just continued this corrupted cycle. Eventually, the throne was sold to the highest bidder, and over a period of 100 years, 37 different emperors ruled and were overthrown, most by assassination.

The rich continued to be protected by the Empire, and the wealthy landowners used slave labor to do their dirty work and put the common farmer out of business. Unable to compete with low prices offered by the Empire’s farms and still pay their workers, who were not slaves, Rome became overrun with the unemployed. These people became a burden on the government, who not only had to feed them, but keep them out of trouble as their dissent turned into increasing crime rates. Forced to live in dirty, cramped apartment houses while the rich resided in houses with marble walls and tiled floors, lack of sanitation (such as the use of lead pipes to transport water) and declining public health became even bigger issues that were completely ignored. The needs of the people went largely unnoticed by the Empire.

The past two elections are fine evidence of the lack of the people’s representation in politics, with former Vice President Al Gore receiving the most popular votes, but still losing to the Electoral College, whose job it was to represent the wishes of their respective states, which was obviously not done. There is also a substantial amount of evidence supporting that votes were “fixed” in many states, as best represented in the Florida scandal involving the president’s own brother. Promising to be “a uniter, not a divider,” Bush only succeeded in dividing the country into “red” and “blue” states, both of which are having sincere doubts presently about his loyalty to the lower classes as more evidence of Republicans’ devotion to large corporations surfaces. Companies such as Wal-Mart continue to put independent businesses into the ground and force people of those communities to take these minimum wage jobs with little to no healthcare benefits, yet the government refuses to step in and either aid small businesses or limit what these corporations can legally do. Practically using slave labor, these companies exploit poorer countries by employing their people to work long, hard hours for little pay and then selling these products to Americans at 100 times their production cost.

Meanwhile, unemployment rates increase in the United States every day. It has also been argued, justifiably so, that the War in Iraq was simply a ruse to gain control of the nation’s oil fields, thus increasing the profits of oil companies like Halliburton, who have significant ties to the president and vice president. Companies such as these have extremely deep pockets, able to lobby politicians daily and pull any string they so desire, which includes keeping whoever they want in office. And with increased spending on the war, the government has dipped into funds that normally would have gone into social security, Medicare, education, public housing, and health issues such as AIDS and cancer. Again, the basic needs of the people – health, employment, affordable food, clothing, and shelter – are being blatantly ignored.

Decline in Morality and the Use of Christianity

As stated earlier, crime increased dramatically as times became tougher for the Roman people. Emperors became infamous for holding lavish parties where guests ate and drank until they became ill. The only thing to distract the people from this increasing corruption was the most immoral “sport” of them all – the gladiator fights in the coliseum. While the people’s cheers for bloodlust were satiated, disease was being spread through the unsanitary conditions of the coliseum, which only added to their health problems. There were also over 30,000 prostitutes working the streets of Rome, which couldn’t have helped matters either.

The easiest example of the decline of morality in the Roman Empire, however, was during the rule of Emperor Constantine. Constantine became famous for introducing Christianity to the Empire, promoting religious “tolerance” amongst the mostly pagan society. He hoped to better shape the morality of the people, but Christianity was simply used as a tool by the rich to further their own agendas. The church was, of course, exempt from taxes, despite government funds being used to build the churches, so many of the wealthy simply converted and became church leaders to avoid taxation. As the Roman version of the Christian church became increasingly corrupt, taking over high government positions and using their power to further benefit their own lifestyles, so did Constantine, replacing religious tolerance with religious dominance, having pagan idols destroyed and major restrictions put on other religions. He gave the appearance of “Christianizing” laws, such as forcing tax collectors to only take what was owed and banning the gladiator games (although they continued anyway), when his own values were far from Christian. Crucifixion was outlawed, but hangings were common. Adultery and prostitution were among the many “moral” crimes punished by having their eyes gouged out or their legs severely maimed. Even Constantine himself ordered the execution of his own son and forced his wife to commit suicide. His lawmaking was obviously far from true Christian values.

Bush is quite famous for living a rich and lavish lifestyle, being the son of a former president and well-paid (but failed) businessman. The American people continue to ignore the fact that he is obviously benefiting from the business deals his position provides him, and remain passive to the continued corruption of government leaders. Rather than protesting, they opt to spend their time in front of the television, watching senseless bloodshed in movies or video games to vent their internal human need for violence. Meanwhile, the president justifies his administration’s decisions by claiming he is a Christian and by using Christian morality to validate his every move. It is no coincidence that Christianity is also the dominant religion of the American people.

He claims to be pro-life, while he prolongs a war that has killed thousands of people (many of them innocent civilians) and continues to add to these numbers every day. (He also executed many prisoners as the governor of Texas, despite Christianity’s stance on the death penalty.) After the overthrow of Hussein, Bush hoped to establish a democracy that mirrors the government of the United States, despite the fact that the democracy of America is far from perfect in itself. He has absolutely no tolerance for the people of Iraq, nor their religious beliefs, which directly conflict with many of the principles of the “Christian nation” of the U.S.

Whether he claims to intend doing so or not, he is instigating a “jihad” of his own, claiming that it was God’s mission to “free” the Iraqi people of their corrupt government (and their “corrupt” religious beliefs). While they certainly were oppressed by Hussein, Bush was simply using the war for their “freedom” as a distraction to help American corporations into the country to establish themselves there as firmly as they have in the States. He also uses Christianity to distract the people from these very issues. While people were busy bickering over abortion laws and gay marriage, both issues which he brought up during his presidency as well as two elections, he was free to do as he pleased here (such as limit the freedoms of the people through censorship and spying on his own citizens) as well as overseas (such as granting exclusive oil contracts to American oil companies in Iraq).

Conclusion

So is history “doomed to repeat itself,” as the saying goes? It may be. While there are certainly differences in the times in which these events have unfolded, the basic inhumanities to man have not changed. The dominance of unethical, self-serving governments and religions continues to plague humanity, and perhaps always will. To break from the cycle, all the American people have to do is stand up for the very rights they claim they have, but this is becoming less of a reality every day.

The final mistake of the Roman Empire was when it left its borders open to barbarian Germanic tribes so that its armies could fight wars in other areas. With so much military effort being put into the Middle East and so little being done to help solve problems in our own nation (Where was the military before and after Katrina?), one must wonder if the United States is guilty of that mistake, too. But unlike the Romans, however, the American Empire may not have the luxury of lasting over 1,000 years. What will unfold next is often unpredictable, but I think I can make an educated guess.