Steven Strauss Sees 8 Substantive Parallels between Today’s United States and the Demise of the Roman Republic — a Heads Up for People Who Refuse to Be Easily Distracted Dunderheads

19 December 2012

Citation — to Strauss’s brief article

Steven Strauss, 8 Parallels Between Contemporary America And The Fall Of The Roman Republic, Business Insider (17 December 2012)

A critical definition — what is a republic?

Drawing on WordNet and Merriam Webster, Wikipedia synopsizes the historically soundest definition:

A republic is a form of government in which the country is considered a "public matter" (Latin: res publica),

not the private concern or property of the rulers, and where offices of states are subsequently directly or indirectly elected or appointed rather than inherited.

Merriam Webster additionally defines “republic” in the way that most Americans today understand it:

(1) A government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law

(2) a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government

Who is Dr. Steven Strauss?

Steven Strauss’s background is impressive and wide-ranging enough to have had Harvard name him one of its twenty-eight 2012 Advanced Leadership Fellows.

The Fellows are an annually selected group of “accomplished leaders” who “develop and refine their specific plan for their public service project such as a social venture, book project, joining an existing non-profit foundation launch, or a campaign for a cause.”

Strauss’s concern about the American Republic’s current direction

Steven Strauss recently read two books:

Lawrence Lessig's Republic Lost documents the corrosive effect of money on our political process.

Lessig persuasively makes the case that we are witnessing the loss of our republican form of government, as politicians increasingly represent those who fund their campaigns, rather than our citizens.

Anthony Everitt's Rise of Rome . . . . tells the story of ancient Rome, from its founding (circa 750 BCE) to the fall of the Roman Republic (circa 45 BCE).

Steven Strauss, 8 Parallels Between Contemporary America And The Fall Of The Roman Republic, Business Insider (17 December 2012) (paragraph split)

From these, Dr. Strauss drew the following parallels between the demise of the Roman Republic (which morphed into the oligarchic dictatorship of the Roman Imperium) and today’s United States (which is doing essentially the same):

1 — Staggering increase in the cost of elections, with dubious campaign funding sources

2 — Politics as the road to personal wealth

3 — Continuous war

4 — Foreign powers lavish money/attention on the Republic’s leaders

5 — Profits made overseas shape the Republic’s internal policies

6 — Collapse of the middle class

7 — Gerrymandering

8 — Loss of the spirit of compromise

Dr. Strauss briefly explains each of these elements in his article. In my historian’s view, his perspective is well taken.

Why this matters

Dr. Strauss’s summarizing skill is valuable because a culture like ours can barely remember what happened yesterday, much less two thousand years ago. Having exceedingly short memories and frequently poorly honed analytical skills, we tend to miss the point, much of the time.

I would go Strauss one more parallel — the two publics’ shared “bread and circuses” mentalities

Roman emperors managed to divert public attention from what they were doing to amass power by providing the public “circuses” (like gladiatorial games) and cheap wheat (for bread).

The phrase comes from Roman poet Juvenal’s Satire X.

“Bread and circuses” means:

Offerings, such as benefits or entertainments, intended to placate discontent or distract attention from a policy or situation.

The parallel with today’s United States is obvious:

Comparatively inexpensive food — significant amounts via government subsidies.

A massive entertainment industry — sports, non-stop television and multiple delivery systems, Hollywood, video games, and politics as recreational theater.

This comprises pretty much everything that we need to stay witlessly content — while our economic and political freedoms are whittled away by the predatory Plutocracy that is buying up our institutions.

The moral? — We cannot say that we have not been warned

Genuine understanding would require most of us to recognize that the broad strokes of History do often repeat themselves. But perhaps we are too arrogantly self-involved to believe that.

It may be that democracy can only be historically short-lived, given human nature’s inability to actively pay attention to the good of the whole for more than a few days.

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Steven Strauss Sees 8 Substantive Parallels between Today’s United States and the Demise of the Roman Republic — a Heads Up for People Who Refuse to Be Easily Distracted Dunderheads