The Second Roman Empire

Have you ever realize that history repeats itself? We, as a race, are constantly

thrown into mistakes already made. A prime example of this would be a comparison

between the United States and the Roman Empire. You may not notice this, but the

Roman Empire is the precursor to the U.S. Our customs and ideals come from the age of

the Romans; our government buildings are formed with the same basic structures as

those of our ancestral time.

During the Roman Empire, the government was creating new ways to better the

lives of its people. They gave them slaves from captured countries and created an

interesting form of politics. The citizens were entertained with bull fights and sports

which were also readily promoted by the government.

However, after the first few lives were shed in the bull fights, the people wanted

more. This soon led to the gladiator games. The citizens became spoiled, they became a

“give me” society; wanting more than they worked for. Violent protests shook the

weakening government and rebellions were deteriorating the Empire, creating instability

from within. Not long after this, the Roman Empire crumbled away into history: thus

began the Dark Ages.

I can compare the two societies without much difficulty. The U.S. government is a

beautiful work. If the citizens would use this democratic republic to their advantage, we

would have a wondrous society. Instead, however, I believe we are coming the end of the

second Roman Age.

Our government supplies us with the basic necessities of life. We are provided

with an education, our freedoms, opportunities and safety. It is also fail-safe, incase one

would get into financial problems, for we have Social Security and Unemployment

pay. What we have would almost seem to be a Utopian government. However, our

society has yet again gotten spoiled.

Statistics are now showing that our education is lower than many third-world

countries and that in eight years the United States will no longer be the world’s super-

power. Education is not nearly stressed as much as it should be in this country, instead,

we are more interested in money and greed. Not only are we working and learning with

less effort and care, we are beginning to demand more for ourselves than we deserve. It’s

not surprising to learn that our main interest is in sports just as it was for the Romans.

Sure, the raging bull fights are not very popular here but we have football, basketball, and

baseball to consume our time instead of that. As for the gladiator games, I believe that the

television/media is fulfilling that need for the moment. Violence and protests are all that

we hear of these days and the country now seems everything but a Utopia.

The Roman Empire lasted much longer than we have so far. However, each period

in history has been shortening with the advances in communication, so we could very

well be witnessing the end of our country. This is due to the arrogance and incompetence

of our society.

Over and over again, the world continues to fight battles that have been fought

hundreds of times before, and each time we use the same tactics and get the same results.

We still have time to fix a mistake that’s already been made before us if we’d just learn

from previous mistakes instead of blindly overlooking them as if no problem like it had

ever arisen in history.

I doubt anything will change soon, so yesterday’s history will

remain tomorrow’s news.