“How did you go bankrupt?”: Is this where we are?

Democracy never lasts long.

It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself.

There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

John Adams, Letter, April 15, 1814

Juvenal makes reference to the Roman practice of providing free wheat to Roman citizens
as well as costly circus games and other forms of entertainment
as a means of gaining political power through populism.



How did you go bankrupt?”
Two ways, gradually and then suddenly

Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises

And hence when by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created among the masses

an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them,

democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence.

For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others

and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others,

as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising

but is excluded from the houses of office by his penury, institute the rule of violence;

and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder,

until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch.

The Histories 6.9.7-9

The high levels of violent crime, epidemic of obesity, addiction to pornography
and excessive use of energy may be telling us something:
the US is in an advanced state of cultural decadence.


Empires decline for many different reasons but certain factors recur.


There is an initial reluctance to admit that there is much to fret about,
and there is the arrival of a challenger (or several challengers) to the settled international order.


In Spain’s case, the rival was Britain.


In Britain’s case, it was America.


In America’s case, the threat comes from China.


Larry Elliot
UK Guardian

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man,

the People have abdicated our duties;

for the People who once upon a time handed out military command,

high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:

bread and circuses

Juvenal – 100 A.D.

Monarchy first changes into its vicious allied form, tyranny; and next,
the abolishment of both gives birth to aristocracy.


Aristocracy by its very nature degenerates into oligarchy;
and when the commons inflamed by anger take vengeance on this government for its unjust rule,
democracy comes into being;
and in due course the licence and lawlessness of this form of government
produces mob-rule to complete the series.


The Histories 6.4.7-13

Roman politicians devised a plan in 140 B.C. to win the votes of the poor:
giving out cheap food and entertainment, “bread and circuses”.
The Roman politicians realized this would be the most effective way
to rise to power and stay in power.
...I couldn’t help but consider the parallels between the Roman Empire and the American Empire.
The entire debt ceiling farce was a circus on an epic scale – The Greatest Show on Earth.
The American public was treated to high wire acts of near debt experiences,
Senators putting their heads into the mouths of lions,
and hundreds of clowns riding tiny bikes with squeaking horns.
In the end, American politicians did what they do best
- pretended to solve a spending problem without cutting spending.
Only in America could politicians put the country on course to increase its national debt
 from $14.5 trillion to $23 trillion by 2021
and declare they are cutting spending.

The Burning Platform

The experience of both Rome and Britain
suggests that it is hard to stop the rot once it has set in,
so here are the a few of the warning signs of trouble ahead:
military overstretch, a widening gulf between rich and poor, a hollowed-out economy,
citizens using debt to live beyond their means, and once-effective policies no longer working.