Dust off your toga

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Apr 22, 2015 at 04:50

Hi, Waz

For the sake of the reader, your "bread and circuses" comment was a reference to the ancient Romans. At first, the Romans were a hardy country of small, freeholding farmers -- much like the northern US before the Civil War. The Romans then began conquering the world, starting with Italy -- just as the US started with its westward conquest of the American continent. Eventually, the Romans had legions stationed from Scotland to Iraq, controlling the world's commerce west of Suez -- just as the US has military bases and naval units all over the world, controlling major sea lanes from Singapore to Suez to Panama.

Rome was originally a republic, with checks and balances very similar to those in the US government; but as the republic grew, it developed into an Empire -- with Julius Caesar taking the reins of power to himself, while keeping only a facade of the Senate and other institutions. The parallel with Barack Obama are obvious.

When Rome was young, as I said, the country consisted mainly of self-sufficient farmers, just like the free states of the US. As Rome grew, however, slaves were brought in large numbers to work the fields of the Senatorial class; and the farmers were forced to seek a living in the cities. In the US, the parallel situation was not slavery (which ended with the defeat of the South), but the Industrial Revolution. Starting in the mid-1800s, we began to import "wage slaves" from Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia, and East and South Europe, to work our factories. The result was the same: independent farmers had to move to the cities to earn their livelihood. Eventually, the government has had to maintain this urban population with "bread" (food stamps, social security, universal health care, etc) and "circuses" (entertainment).

Yes, Waz. the US has become like ancient Rome. Of course, so have Australia, Japan, China and most of the world. Concerning Obama, I might note that polls were taken all over the world in 2012; and the only country where candidate Romney was as popular as Obama was the US. It's not just the Americans who were duped by the African from Indonesia, but the whole planet.

The New Roman Empire was at its height under George W. Bush, when it stretched clear around the world, encircling virtual client states Russia and China. Now it's fragmented, just as the Roman Empire of old did at times, into the US, the British dominions, Europe (aka Germany), Japan and Korea, with Russia and China forming a common cause against it. Many people have a fantasy in their heads, about an all-too powerful US, twirled around the little finger of megapower Israel. It doesn't work that way. Obama is the puppet of moneybags from Europe, Russia, China, Thailand, the Emirates, all over.

If an election were held in the world today, on a realistic basis (one dollar, one vote), I expect that a "neo-liberal" mouthpiece like Obama would be chosen as the world's token leader. I would not be surprized, to find a survey showing that the world would choose Hillary Clinton in 2016 as well.

Dust off your toga, and practice saying "Ave!"

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