Are we Rome?

Dallas Morning News | Rod Dreher:

“Are we Rome? That is, are we Americans, citizens of the mightiest empire the world has known since the days of the Caesars, living in the last days of our civilization? Is the United States, like the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, doomed to collapse from its own decadence? Or can we avoid Rome's fate?”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Yes, of course we are Rome. I might quibble with some of the similarities and differences Mr Dreher lists, but overall there is no doubt that the United States today commands the position of ancient Rome at the height of its empire.

Is the United States at the height of its own empire? That depends on how Americans view their empire. If the worldview of George W Bush and his foreign policy persists, decline is inevitable sooner rather than later. The United States cannot impose its values on the world through the force of an overstretched military. A continuation of current foreign policy will only hasten the decline.

On the other hand, if the United States leads by example, the rest of the world will likely be eager to follow. That requires taking many of Mr Dreher's recommendations:

• appreciation of a wider world
• accepting change
• promoting assimilation (including jump-starting America's upwardly mobile lower and middle classes -- the income gap is widening, not closing, now)
• treating government as a useful tool for collective action (and not an evil, or worse, a source of wealth to be plundered)
• using the military for defense, not for imposing America's will on an unwelcoming world

If the United States takes Mr Dreher's prescriptions, it can postpone that day of inevitable decline. Mr Dreher can put off looking for that 21st century version of a Benedictine monastery to which he can retreat to preserve civilization through the coming Dark Ages. Instead, the United States can lay the groundwork for whatever civilization replaces the United States and ensure that it is civilization and not the barbarian hordes that brought down Rome.