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Comment by mixmax | Hacker News Reader

Gibbon’s thesis was that the Roman Empire fell prey to barbarian invasions because of a loss of virtue. The Romans became weak over time, outsourcing the defense of their empire to barbarian mercenaries who eventually took over. Gibbon saw this Praetorian Guard as the cause of decay, abusing their power through imperial assassinations and incessant demands for more pay.

read that sentence again and think about the US.

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We're not quite there yet. You don't see the Koch brothers trying to assassinate Obama. (No, attack ads are not the same.) You don't see a shooting civil war between Koch supporters and Soros supporters. And all that happened during the Roman Republic.

Moving on to the Empire, you don't see soldiers assassinating the president (or members of Congress) because they want higher pay.

I know that it feels similar, but we really aren't there... at least not yet.

Agreed. We got a long way to go. Remember Rome, the Empire, lived on for some 500 years. And that's not counting the Eastern Empire after the first sack. And Rome was sacked a few times.

When you see local gangs taking control of areas of the country (in some cases printing their own money) we've arrived.

>Moving on to the Empire, you don't see soldiers assassinating the president (or members of Congress) because they want higher pay.

Perhaps because that's not how politics is played in the 21st century in a Western country.

That doesn't necessarily mean the decline is not there -- it could be just as big as Rome's but different. For one it wont have much to do with "babaric hordes".

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