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During many years of watching the slow-motion collapse of American society, I have often noted the parallels to the way the Roman Republic slid into greater and greater oligarchy, and then empire.
The Senatorial and Equestrian classes constituted the backbone of the Roman Republic. During the last century BC, greater and greater instability affected the power relations in these classes -- with riot and assassination and then civil war bringing in the reign of the oligarchs and the triumvirs -- while all the time the oligarchs made a great pretense of respecting the institutions of the Republic.
Sound familiar?
The power of the oligarchs in modern America likewise seems to be increasingly concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. Perhaps we are entering into the time of the precursor's of the triumvirs -- the Clintons and the Bushes are suggestive -- and now Trump! (Perhaps one might compare the Kennedy brothers fate with the earlier and doomed Gracchi brothers -- the last flailing effort to bring stability to the Republic).
Of the members of the First Triumvirate, Trump reminds me strongly of Crassus -- who interestingly made his fortune in real estate! Both Crassus and Trump are obvious narcissistic sociopaths who think they can extend their financial success into politics and war. Crassus was determined to win military glory despite his incompetence in that field, and met crushing defeat and death in the Middle East. Considering Trump's mania about gold, one notes the story that his captors killed Crassus by pouring molten gold down his throat.
Of course, my analogy breaks down here. We have yet to see an American Pompey or Caesar -- but perhaps soon!
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Last edited by matthew; 05/02/16 10:52 PM.
