Roman Empire and Glenn Beck Republicans

Stupidity and laziness, I would say. By the fall of the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Western Roman Empire, the majority of the Roman populace had become complacent. The soldiers, the defining aspect of the Empire, who were police, firemen, road-crews, civil engineers, all at once, were no longer really "Roman" the majority of them were mercenaries, trained in the methods of the Roman army, given Roman equipment, and expected to have the loyalty to Rome that the Legions once had. Stupidity clearly played a huge role in this.

However, another key factor that is that the Romans themselves no longer put as much effort into their empire. Many Romans would pay a fee to get out of mandatory service. Those who did serve were softer, refusing to go to the lengths their forebears had gone, such as building fortifications, and carrying large amounts of supplies and gear with them. That laziness is what led to the "decadence" theory, which was later twisted by the sexually oppressed Victorian era. The decadence, orgies and mass murder, had been there all along. They were, by and large, on the decline by the end. Laziness and Stupidity, however, along with bureaucratic apathy, were on the rise. So when those Roman trained and equipped mercenaries decided to return to their barbarian rape and pillage ways, Rome no longer had the ability to put a stop to it.

That DOES seem to somewhat foreshadow certain current events, of course. Arming a former enemy, training them, and then abandoning them before they have the stability to thrive on their own… rather than building up potential allies, it is arming potential enemies. Without stability, places like Iraq and Afghanistan will not remain friendly to the west, the puppet regimes that were supposed to give way to real democratic governments will be toppled, and the troops trained, armed, and once funded by the West will become a bigger thorn in our sides than the people we used them to replace. Just like the last time, which led to the Taliban taking power. And yet, both Republicans and Democrats, in the US, and their equivalents in other Western nations, such as the Conservatives, Liberals, and Labour or NDP in the UK and Canada, are incapable of seeing this obvious mistake, which they are all willing to support for the sake of short term gains, because by the time it back fires, it will be someone else’s problems. Again we see that stupidity and laziness come forth. Why put out the effort now, to prevent problems down the road, which may never occur; if plague wipes that entire nation out, it was a waste of effort. If nothing wipes them out, well, someone else will be responsible by then; the typical bureaucratic and political perspective: lazy, stupid, and short sighted.

There are no definite causes which can explain the fall of an empire.There were specific reasons which  set in motion decline of  empire culminating into fall.The common causes were tyrant,ineffective and inefficient rulers.Annexation and merger of larger territories with empire,rendered management of empire extremly difficult.Loosened grips on subjects,ignited rebellion and revolt.Disintegeration born out of inherent contradictions eventually precipitated collapse of empire.No empire survived contradictions and has had to collapse.Roman empire,Persian empire,Byzantine empire and finally Ottoman empire,all fell.

The neo-empire has media,financial institutions,more than seven hundred bases,largest army in the known history and arsenal of dealiest weapons of mass destruction,no rival to challenge its hegemonic ambitions may stay for the time being.The secessionist movements in next few decades may be the begining of the end of neo-empire.Laziness and stupidity both are at work.Every thing takes it own time,downfall is not an exception.Let us hope for the best.

The analogy between the reason/s for the fall of Ancient Rome, to the effect of modern Christanity on Right Wing political ideology, and Glenn Beck Republican specific political activism in American today_maybe a bit of a stretch.

My comment would be that this topic could be dealt with directly by suggesting all religions have effected societies around the global since religion began. That any religion for whatever purpose or meaning is controlled by man, culture, and society. That fallacies of mankinds ideas create the failings in our history. Our vision is blurred from our own emotional and mental shortcomings, misconceptions, and distortions. All religions are only part of those fallacies. The complexities of your assertion can't be defined in one way. 1

More from the "progressives" who rewrite history to support their unsupportable prejudices. 

A couple of points. As others have said, there are many reasons the Roman Empire fell, one of which was that the Romans themselves no longer thought it worth defending. Individuals would rather pay some other sap to defend their culture than actually defending it themselves. This mindset is around today WRT Western culture. Another major point was the end of the Roman Warm period where global cooling caused drops in Italian crop yeilds and Rome itself became dependent on imported food from elsewhere in the Empire, notably Egypt. Harsher conditions in the North forced the northern tribes south and into the Empire.     I must also take issue with the "high-technology high-benefit abundant clean energy" idea. Figures from Britain show that Wind is not living up to it's promise and barely makes 10% of its rated power output. Hydro is good and clean, but it seems those who want "clean energy" don't want dams. So where is this energy supposed to come from?      "They want to poison the world", "They want to destroy the world". Really? You actually believe that the American right has as its intent, the destruction of the planet? And you accuse them of conspiracy theories?