“On March 28, 193, after murdering the previous Emperor, the Praetorian Guard (Guard of the Emperor) held an auction to see who would buy the Empire.” The winner was Marcus Didius Severus Julianus who paid 28 million 125 thousand Drachmas for the privilege.
The Western Roman Empire was to officially last until 476 when a German by the name of Odoacer took over and oversaw its physical disintegration. Although the official end is recorded as such, its tipping point occurred 283 years before when transactional authoritarianism had already driven the Empire into its demise.
The notion of democracy institutionalized by the Greeks and followed by the Romans was no more. The constant political pressures of wars and conquest led to “shortcuts” that derailed an Empire.
America is at also at a tipping point as it is threatened by an approaching tunnel of darkness authored by the “Tyrant Holdfast,” the archetypal manifestation of the status quo. It threatens to stop the journey of democracy because a significant number of Americans do not want to go beyond what has already been achieved.
In Roman times, when the community felt threatened sufficiently, its leaders would elect a dictator with absolute power for a designated duration. While this, perhaps, solved their problem in the short term, it eventually led to a system where imperial dictatorship became a common way of governing.
In Modern times, Communism in practice is very much a dictatorship of the few that espouses democratic principles but rules as absolutes. During the Cold War, it was Republican Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy that took extreme positions against what he thought were Communists infiltrated in American government service in the 1950s and early 1960s.
President Putin of Russia learned his authoritarian skills as a Soviet Union Communist and transferred them to his rule of Russia. It is ironic that members of the same Republican Party that led the fight against Communism are now allies of a man who helped facilitate the work of that system.
As was in Roman time, the transactional side of “buy- ing power over a country” is very much in the portfolio of the Republican leadership. There are credible reports that former President Trump met at his Mar-a-lago Club in April with executives from Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Continental Resources and asked that they get together and provide 1 billion dollars in donations to the Trump campaign.
One could say that flirting with dictators and selling the future life of the country to special interests can be categorized as politics as usual. Yet offering to extend the 2017 tax cut for the richest 1 percent which is due to expire in 2025 and further deregulating oil production so that the industry can unnecessarily pollute our environment are very serious matters.
In the larger view of history, these issues are symptomatic of a dominant civilization that is in decay. Decadence occurs as the last segment of a living cycle.
The Western Civilization cycle that began with the Renaissance in the middle of the 1400s appears to be having major difficulties. That is because there are those that see the process of democracy as too difficult and no longer in their favor.
America is lucky in that we are an immigrant and multicultural country. That means that there are groups that do not date the beginning of their “Renaissance” to the middle 1400s. Their new beginning is much later. That is why these groups bring with them the energy to overcome decadence. They just need an opportunity.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of laVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to news@lavozcolorado.com.
