One of the great benefits of reading history is that it provides the reader with an informed perspective to interpret current events. As I was scheduling future posts for the daily Castalia Library serialization of the 1911 edition of The Cambridge Medieval History, I came across this very timely section on the economic challenge faced by the Roman emperors in the early Third Century.
Serious economic difficulties have moral causes, and there was no radical cure short of a complete change in the temper of society. Yet much might have been done by a permanent reduction of taxation and a reform of its incidence and of the methods of collection. Instead of this, the machinery of government (and its expense) was greatly increased. The army had to be held in check by courts of Oriental splendour and a vast establishment of corrupt officials. We can see the growth of officialism even in the language, if we compare the Latin words in Athanasius with those in the New Testament. So heavier taxes had to be levied from a smaller and poorer population. Taxation under the Empire had never been light ; in the third century it grew heavy, under Diocletian it was crushing, and in the later years of Constantine the burden was further increased by the enormous expenditure which built up the new capital like the city in a fairy tale. We are within sight of the time when the whole policy of the government was dictated by dire financial need. We have already reached a state of things like that we see in Russia.
That passage anticipated the October Revolution by six years. Given that there are absolutely no indications that the American people are in any moral condition to force “a complete change in the temper of society” or even to stop the massive invasion of the last 59 years, it’s possible that we will see the political collapse I predicted would take place in 2033 as soon as 2030.
Simplicius notes that the Clown World elite that rules the USA appears to finally be aware that their predatory, self-serving governance has weakened the empire to the point they are in danger of being swept away completely.
I’ve written previously on the panic currently effervescing through the global elites, made viscerally apparent at conclaves like the Davos forum earlier this year. But in America particularly, a deep worry is now consciously gnawing the ruling class—they can see it, feel it: that the American Empire is on its last legs, close to collapse.
This month has seen a bevy of new thinkpieces from top American deepstate figures or old-guard publications urging the changing of course, lest the country be swept away by the remorseless tide of history… This is the theme which recurs again and again throughout the new zeitgeist taking over political discourse in the stricken Beltway—panicking neocons are exhorting each other: we’re in a fight for our lives, if we don’t accept the new realities, we’ll drown!
Ruling Class Finally Awakens to the Reality of America’s Decline, 22 June 2024
The clowns won’t be able to do anything to reverse the decline, or even slow it, of course. Subversion, rhetoric, corruption, and doubling-down are all they know how to do, but none of those tactics work when you’re the one in charge and you’re responsible for maintaining the social order. The more they subvert, the more they corrupt, and the more they double down, the weaker their position becomes.