A little while ago, I began musing on the similarities I could see between current Western Civilisation and the socio-economic situation of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome as they began to fall into the inevitable ruin which consumes all man-made institutions. I’m interested, however, for your thoughts, additions, corrections, and general discussions on the points I raise.
Shortly before they fell, Greece and Rome both experienced financial difficulties (such as inflation, deflation, etc.), attempted to allow other cultures to assimilate fully (although, in Rome’s defence, Christianity did have to go underground to avoid their vicious persecutions and consequently spread like wildfire (sorry, did I say “defence”?)), and began praising debauchery, depravity, hedonism, and all other forms of vice (especially sexual vices).
Now we see that Western Civilisation (particularly America, Australia, England, France, and Germany) have all, especially in the last hundred-odd years, suffered from financial difficulties (inflation, deflation, etc. (see "World War 1”, “Great Depression”, “World War 2”, etc.), attempted to allow other cultures to assimilate fully (Islam, Protestantism (the heretical off-shoot from Catholicism that allowed a much looser translation of scripture), Communism, etc.), and has begun praising debauchery, depravity, hedonism, and all other forms of vice (especially sexual vices (both the very old and the brand new and utterly demonic ones which must repulse even Satan himself (if you will indulge a little hyperbole))).
You can see what I’m getting at. What with the propensity of history to repeat itself and the lack of new stuff under the sun, Western Civilisation, whose attempts at unity have merely ensured all these bickering, childish world leaders can get together and mirror each other’s’ mistakes all over the world, is going the same way as Greece and Rome. They may fall more slowly (still being technically separate), but the way they have tangled themselves together has ensured that as goes one, so goes the rest.
/* It really sucks, but the only thing left over at the end (assuming the world doesn’t end) will be that 2000-year-old institution whose job it is to bring as many as will listen to God, and who has, so far, kept art, literature, etc. from the Roman Empire and her “successors” alive: The Catholic Church. See your local parish today to join, membership costs only your pride, gratuities are appreciated. /*
When Greece fell, its tyrants had long since vanished and been replaced with an emperor-type leader and government. Rome began as a monarchy, became a republic under Lucius Brutus, became a dictatorship under Julius Caesar (who refused to relinquish the dictatorship as the people would make him king if he did (which he didn’t think wise)), and with the death of Caesar at the hands of Marcus Brutus, Rome became an Empire. Whilst the success of the Empire can’t be denied, it did lead to the financial difficulties.
The financial difficulties heralded a severe collapse in the civilisation, and what followed next was the endless cycle of too much money, not enough, minted too much, thrown too much out, etc., and this was followed by a need for rapid expansion to spread the money further, but in order that they might expand they needed more citizens. They gave the slaves a level of citizenship hitherto unheard of in a civilisation (as it was different each time), they allowed other peoples to assimilate into their culture as citizens (though not in any way our civilisation would recognise), and they allowed the lords, dukes, kings, etc. to keep rank (albeit grudgingly and without authority over their citizens (Greeks were answerable to Greeks, Romans to Romans, etc.). It’s a typical practise, and it doesn’t help (after all, Greece and Rome fell).
What followed the assimilation of other cultures was a mixing of races, religions, cultural practises, superstitions, etc. which were nearly completely incompatible with their host, and this lead to more socio-political upheaval, civil unrest, and, ultimately, the sundering of the Roman Empire (no-one cares about Greece by this point), which also led to the formation of the Orthodox v Catholic Church rivalry (with one of them being right and the other being Orthodox).
The British Empire has long since been forgotten, but it still exists (not in name, but in its essentials (because “therell_always_be_an_england.mp4” and “Commonwealth”)) and in two halves, America and England (with one being right and the other being America (who are heading towards the dictatorial stage (nobody is quite sure how Britain is working by now, it has a monarch as its head of state, a PM as its head of government, and the American President telling them what to do))).
With Western Civilisation being supported by the American economy, it is no surprise that America is in financial difficulties. They had the Great Depression followed by a war (a fair sized one it was, too!), then another war, then another, and, basically, they have been at war ever since. America is also trying to allow other cultures to assimilate, which has caused some socio-political upheaval, and they are now trying to rewrite parts of history to suit those parties who might be “offended” by it, which is akin to kicking away the ladder that got you to where you are without first hopping off it.
No civilisation yet has had the power to obliterate both itself and the surface of the world at the touch of a button, and right now we have two with that power, Russia and America (with one being aggressive and the other being Russia (I know right? Russia hasn’t been conquered in years, so it’s unlikely they’ll feel threatened by much)).
Never yet, in the history of civilisations (especially that which led into the Modern Western Civilisation), have we seen quite such a love of sexual sin and perversion, or if it has been seen, it is not recorded. The closest we have come is still only hinted at in Greek history and the Old Testament accounts of Sodom and Gomorrah, which do not include any descriptions, it they only suggest that it was “man lying with man as with woman”. In our society today we have that, man lying with man and woman with woman, but also the grooming of children to lay with those of the same sex, and the gradual progression from natural sexual intercourse (man-woman for kids), to (wo)man-(wo)man, to the next step: bestiality. Once the act is separated from the goals (glorification of God, begetting of children, strengthening of the union of and pleasure from husband and wife) to be only for pleasure, then you have started down a slippery slope (not in the fallacious sense, unfortunately), but those who are leading us down the slope refuse to see it.
We are now seeing the governments of the world forcing this issue through under titles such as “LGBT Rights” and “Human Rights” because it is much more palatable when put so than when honestly expressed as “Perverse Degeneracy” or “Sinful Behaviour”, because Heaven forbid you could call it “wrong”, that would be a direct violation of the newly defined “Human Rights”.
Not only does the government involve itself to the full, but both private corporations, public companies, and military organisations are now deluding themselves with this dangerous and self-destructive ideology (which is also idolatry, but I shall come back to this topic later) to the point where General Motors Holden sponsored the Sodomite 2017 Mardi Gras in Sydney and the Australian Defence Force and Australian Defence Force Cadets (youths between 12 and 20) marched proudly to show their support for this political move, yet neither would publicly support a religious event or anything of that type as being “Bigoted”, “Intolerant”, and “Indoctrination”. Such, then, is the moral degradation of the West.
All these “rights movements” are causing damage to the economy, which causes a desperate search for more money, which the government looks for in what garners money (the “rights movements”), and the cycle continues: a rot sets in, it is spread around to dissipate it, oddly enough it doesn’t work, more sets in and is spread around, finally, the spreading is repeated so much that we’re neck deep in rottenness and the government offers us the same rot under a different name to fix the problem.
Why is the idolatry important to bring up? It is important to bring it up because of the nature of Man. God made Man to worship Him, not to worship himself. After the Fall of Adam, however, the desires and will of “brother-ass” (as St. Francis of Assisi called the body) became stronger than the willingness and desire of the spirit/soul., this led to the inevitable praising of vice over virtue, which has been an ever increasing struggle since the founding of the Church as Satan seeks more than ever to draw souls to him, away from God, and with these “rights movements”, Satan has found the perfect ride on which to piggy-back. When men begin to worship their own individual pleasure rather than God (the Beatific Vision Himself), then anything goes except worship of God, at the thought of Whom a sinful soul shrinks and cowers, feeling the weight of its sins so keenly that it feels as though it’s being pierced with knives, which will lead to one of two outcomes: either the soul will repent and seek God’s Mercy, or it will harden itself to God and turn to its sins for solace.
This is what is happening now and it’s not comforting anyone, so they seek the approval and acceptance of everyone especially Catholics, but the Catholic Church has been given teachings from God which make it clear that the behaviour cannot be acceptable to Him as it is contradictory to Him, and so the hurt and sorrow of the hardened soul turns to despair which is unleashed as anger against God and His Church. Once more the soul turns towards its sins for the respite it cannot find, and then it seeks to spread its sins to as many as possible in the hopes of sating its insatiable thirst. The nobility of the Greeks and Romans tried it and it didn’t help them, but people will not learn, and the rich continue to make the same errors: borrowing more than they can afford, etc.
The world speaks of having done away with the “class system”, that there is no distinction between rich and poor, but if person A earns $70 million a year and person B $10k a year, then person A will always be richer than person B. By calling it “comparable income” or “appropriate earnings” or something similar, you haven’t abolished the class system, you have renamed it and deluded yourself into thinking it’s abolished. “The poor you will have with you always”, that is, there will always be that person who is either spiritually or materially poor, but better to be the latter than it is the former. This leads to programs by the government seeking to remove the poor, but the more it tries, the more it damages itself as it pays for people who will contribute nothing. The government cannot tax them for an income, so the poor are unwittingly helping sink the country as the government throws at them more money than it actually has (the government prints heaps of money, too much, throw heaps at the poor, “Oops, we threw too much! Tax some of it back!”, they taxed back too much, the poor are back, and in greater numbers, repeat until the economy completely collapses and we try bringing in foreign money to…).