(HOST) Pundits have been comparing the United States to Imperial Rome for a while now. In fact, commentator Bill Mares says that he’s been doing it himself for years. But he also says that a new book offers a fresh and provocative take on the idea.
(MARES) Ever since I read Edward Gibbon’s "Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire" 25 years ago – I confess it was only a 900 page abridgement – half-formed comparisons between Rome and the U.S. today have rolled around in my head like rusty pin-balls.
Notable on that list have been the rising income disparity, the incredible conspicuous consumption, and the general coarsening of society. And then there’s the privatization of more and more government functions, including the military – Blackwater’s outrages in Iraq come to mind. Aren’t NASCAR drivers just modern charioteers? Aren’t NFL players just gladiators without the deaths? And then when President Bush advised us to show our patriotism by going shopping after 9/11, I couldn’t help but think of Gibbon, who wrote, "It was artfully contrived by (the emperor) Augustus that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans would lose their memory of freedom."
Now comes a new book whose wit and insights make me envious. In only 220 pages, Cullen Murphy, a former editor for The Atlantic magazine, elegantly answers the title’s question, "Are We Rome?" with a resounding "Yes, No and Maybe."
For pessimists, the book documents some of the toxic mixture of arrogance and ignorance we project abroad today, a Washington afloat in lobbyists’ money as Rome swam in corruption, and the respective hypocrisies of our two cultures regarding immigration and values. Since Murphy was writing as the Iraq war unfolded, he relishes retelling the story of when the Consul Crassus took an army to ego-driven destruction in the Iraq desert.
For optimists, however Murphy contends that, unlike Rome, we still have a reasonably functioning and responsive democracy. Our impatient national character includes a willingness and an ability to change.
Therefore, he says, we should stop telling others what to do and work out our own political and societal salvation along these general lines:
Seek a broader appreciation of the wider world. Rein in our hubris and join the concert of nations.
Stop treating government as a necessary evil, and instead support it to do the big jobs it can do well.
Fortify the institutions that promote assimilation and build community. Among other things that means some kind of obligatory national service
Take some weight off the overstretched military. As a bitter Iraqi veteran wrote in the New York Times, the nation’s attitude has been, "Party Here, Sacrifice Over There."
Develop a long range-energy policy that pays our dues to the planet and gives us some economic moral ground to stand upon.
In the course of answering the question, "Are we Rome?" Cullen Murphy pointedly allows us to ask ourselves, "Who are we?"
Bill Mares of Burlington is a writer, former teacher, and legislator.