Shadows and Dust

Are you not entertained!?

I usually cannot allow more than a year to pass without watching one of my favorite movies, Gladiator. If you have the opportunity to watch the extended version, watch it, it adds a little more depth to an already epic story. There are so many quotes that transcend, "... we are but shadows and dust", "... what we do in life, echoes in eternity", "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius ..." so on and so forth. Every time I watch it, I learn a little bit more about history, humanity and politics.

Congress is supposed to be the voice of the people, elected
by the people, to speak for the people

Halfway through the movie, Senator Gracchus comments on the new Caesar's first ruling as Emperor. To honor his father's death, he wants to commemorate it with 100 days of games at the coliseum. Grachuss mentions in concern that the Emperor is a lot smarter than he thought, when questioned why, he answers "Fear and Wonder are a powerful combination. He knows what Rome is, Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they'll be distracted. Take their freedom and they'll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not on the marble of the senate, it's the sand of the coliseum. He'll bring them death - and they will love him for it."

The difference with our President is that he wears a suit

Unfortunately, I see so many parallels to our country and the decaying times we are living in. And I say unfortunately, since Rome was once at the height of civilization and was crumbled. The once great republic granted special powers to one man, Caesar, and thus beginning the era of the Roman Empire, spreading itself too thin and not being able to defend against numerous invasions. I see the United States as that empire that is spreading itself too thin, through an insulting amount of debt with no end to stop it or even slow it down. But how does the people respond? They don't. We are subject to a oligopoly-controlled media who shove hours of reality television, an unhealthy cult to celebrities, what appears to be manufactured news, and not to mention a constant release of epidemics and dangers attempting, and succeeding, to keep the people afraid, seeking the ever-knowing, ever-present government to protect us.

Respect to the man who criticizes where critic is due

Is America the new Roman Empire? Is a President that has the authority to target US citizens on US soil, without congressional approval, the beginning of a new Caesar? Are issues like Gay Rights, the Trayvon Martin case, Snowden, Anthony Wiener, etc., coliseum-like distractions to entertain the American mob? Is our out-of-control spending and debt synonymous of the arrogance the Roman Empire had to conquer all of the known world?

Don't allow yourself to be distracted from what's really important. Study history. Look at the cycles each powerful empire has gone through from conception to demise. Understand economics, because when all the distractions lose their effect, we will find ourselves at the mercy of scarcity and our ability to fulfill our most basic needs. Understand the reason why this new country was founded. Look at liberty, it's not a radical idea, it's not something crazy people believe in, it's the most conservative idea in our nation, since it was founded on this very same principle.

America is behaving like a wife who gets cheated on,
and then joins her cheating husband to hunt down
the one who told her about it.