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The Fall of “All Great Societies” Introduction

When I was in what we then called Jr. High School, we had to elect what courses we wanted to take in preparation for the rest of our life. I don’t know, at that point in life how the average child is supposed to know what he or she would want to do when they "grew up"  but based on all those years of experience I guess the Board of Education figured we were mature enough to figure it out.  

I knew what I liked, but I could not see how I could make a living at it. Being all 13 years old, with all that experience behind me (sarcasm intended), I wanted to be an archaeologist, but I could not see how anyone could make a living at it. With all the foresight and intellect of a 13-year-old though, I reasoned by the time I had completed high school, college, and obtained my PhD, all the discoveries would have been made. So then what would be the sense of becoming an archaeologist if all the discoveries were made, even if I could figure out how to make money in that field of work?  (This is really what I thought! Ah, yes, the reasoning of a 13-year-old) 

Anyway, I figured a better course of action would be to invest the time and energy into studying something with a big future - like industrial applications for electricity and electronics. So, that was the course curriculum I elected.  Although heavily laden in formulas, mathematical equations, and theories, the courses came easy to me. As a matter of fact, rarely did I ever have to study to get by (honestly, except for rushing through homework in study halls, I don’t ever recall studying).  It was so easy for me, that I didn't really take it seriously and even started to work full time as an apprentice chef.  You weren't supposed to work as an apprentice back in those days if you were still in high school but back then they didn't have Big Brother tracking you the way they do today. Unless you told them or made some objection yourself, no one really cared, so it seemed, anyway. All they cared about is that you worked and did your job.  In addition to going to school for electricity, learning to be a chef, I still retained a love of history and spent time reading and studying ancient civilizations. 

 FOR LOVE OF HISTORY

 One of civilizations that really caught my fascination was that of ancient Roman. No civilization before nor after has lasted as long as they had. Due to a number of circumstances, it is my humble opinion that the likelihood of a civilization coming along that would meet their greatness will never been seen again during the history of mankind. Books have been written on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Unlike the great advanced mythological civilizations, the Greek, Egyptian, and Roman civilizations have solid proof of their existence.

Something I have questioned and what puzzles me is that the subject matter is so relevant to our society today, I ask myself, why aren't the lessons we learned from the rise and fall of all these civilizations taught with more enthusiasm in our educational system today? Indeed, why aren't they taught throughout the civilized world? 

Is it because a few selfish people in our society who wish to control the money supply and power and they find this is much easier to do if they control the knowledge or flow of that information? Is it that people just do not care about the long-term survival of their society and the quality of life they leave behind? I don’t have the full answer, but I’ve spoken with a lot of people and I think I have a couple of ideas.    

Although several factors have been said to have contributed to the downfall of the Roman Empire, (as well as every great civilization in history) historians have determined, the following eight factors are common to all civilizations that have fallen.  First, I will list these factors and then in the following chapters, I will detail each item and discuss my thoughts.

  LIST OF EIGHT COMMON FACTORS

  1. Military losses against outside forces. The civilizations did not understand nor take the threats to their society, collectively as “serious.”  Although there were lone voices within the social structure in some cases that foretold of the threat, in most cases the threats were not seen as very serious and “allowed to hang around” until they either gained sufficient strength or wore down Empire, or the Empire itself just lost the will to fight. The military forces were looked down upon. 

 2.  Economic troubles and over reliance on technology or slave labor.  With the society seeming to be at a constant state of war, and being attacked from outside forces, there were forces from within that also were at odds with the empire. The empire started to show signs of weakness. The infrastructure began to crumble from within and due to severe financial crisis very little could be done. The constant wars and preparations for war had significantly lightened the coffers. Instead of tightening fiscal policies the governments increased taxes. Oppressive taxation and inflation had widened the gap between rich and poor. In most cases, the wealthy class fled to the countryside and set up independent fiefdoms to avoid the taxman. 

3. The loss of traditional values - the core values of the population had been lost. Fundamental views, whatever they were, eventually were abandoned completely. 

4. Weakening of the military forces. Throughout history, dominant societies, empires, or kingdoms have all been accented by strong militaries. It would only be logical then that there is a definite correlation between a strong military and a great society or civilization. 

5. Deemphasizing of authority, nationalism, with greater dependency on mercenaries, imports, outsourcing, contingency workers and contractual personnel or conscripts

 6.  Leadership incompetence and political corruption. As each society began to fall, the people faced leadership instability. There existed a lack of competence in the higher echelons of power and the levels of government became more and more corrupt. Instead of doing right for the society, the politicians became more concerned with their own personal agenda and protecting their power base.  

 7. The arrival of outside cultures and their migration. As other cultures are accepted into the immigration system, the ability of the social structure is taxed to the breaking point putting additional strains on the financial systems causing the citizens to pay even higher taxes. As the immigrants are brought in, in ever increasing numbers, their contributions are not significant enough to balance the stress caused on other social systems thus promoting more and more discontent and dissatisfaction.  

8. General hoarding, cheating, acceptance of bribery and corruption as the norm. The people in general were more concerned with their own personal welfare than the welfare of their neighbors or neighborhoods. In the beginning, the studied societies studied had pulled together for the betterment of the general welfare of the society as a whole, whereas in the waning years the population was only concerned with self-promotion and their own personal situation. This is otherwise known as a shift to "lifeboat ethics."