Has America become the new Rome?

This post’s title has fast become the growing question amongst historians as of late in which it has been debated that America is now considered to be that of the historical Roman Empire.  While such a question would tend to illicit much emotional debate over such a proposition, it’s rather short-sided to assume that the United States has become that of an empire.  The emphasis of this debate might stem from the fact that America, much like many early empires, took part in imperialistic tendencies in as much as America attempted to grow its land acquisition with throughout its early history but also recently as well.  And while this might be the case, it was the going trend at the time to try and acquire land through as could be seen in the events following -- World War I and World War II for starters.  

But in mentioning the current political as well as military role of America within the world today, it still resembles that of the Roman empire.  This notion is rather faulty as the United States is a country not an empire.  More so, the role America plays in today’s world is that of a globalized police force in that our Navy has patrolled many of the shipping lanes in multiple oceans for at least a century.  Without such a force during the second world war, this world might have a different face.  Similarly, current world affairs might be drastically different as well.  It could be said that a strong military holds much in the way of influence, yet the mere notion of freedom, liberty might hold an even longer reach when attempting to draw influence amongst the world’s continents and countries.

If we move to chapter 5, a series of questions are proposed.  These questions were “What is the purpose of life?  How should human society be ordered?  What is the relationship between human life in this world and the moral or spiritual realms that lie beyond” (128)?  These questions can have multiple answers from all walks of life both in the early civilizations but also in today’s modern societies.  To qualify the concept of order, Strayer writes of the legalist perspective as stating “Legalists generally entertained a rather pessimistic view of human nature.  Most people were stupid and shortsighted.  Only the state and its rulers could act in their long-term interests.  Doing so meant promoting farmers and soldiers, the only two groups in society who performed essential functions, while suppressing artisans, merchants, aristocrats, scholars, and other classes regarded as useless” (128).  

What’s interesting about this quote is that we tend to see the standard interpretation of the different peoples in society.  In this case, China didn’t consider those in the less physical realms of work “worth” any contribution to society.  As a result, they ended up facing oppression while those who farmed or were soldiers tended to reap the benefits.  This would seem to draw on future sentiments by Communist dictators such as Mao Zedong.  If we were to draw on these legalistic notions as a means of comparison to America’s early history.  It was the tyranny of the British king that forced the early settlers out of England and into what is now the United States.  But what is intriguing is the fact that our founding fathers sought to create a society where all peoples could coexist freely, where there was a sense of acceptance.  With the ease with which suppression of a civilization’s people creates turmoil, it’s not hard to fathom why as Strayer points out “...no philosopher or ruler ever again openly advocated its ideas” (129) even though legalistic ideas did play a role in further Chinese leadership.

From Watering Hole to Coffee Shop (Chapters 1 - 3)

The commonality of coffee shops demonstrates how far we have come as a society, yet at the same time, illustrates how similar some would think we are to the societies of history.  Much like how we sit in Starbucks, talking with friends and family, creating what could be considered the modern watering hole, the peoples of history have done similarly, creating the first settlements by most forms of water.  Even though we live in a time where information is rather abundant and taken for granted such that many people use the same coffee shops to learn how to access information on devices that grow smaller and smaller and smarter and smarter, Robert Strayer argues for the notion that societies that lacked technology let alone writing ability still have the ability to convey history.  He writes "Some historians identify 'real history' with writing and so dismiss the Paleolithic era as largely unknowable because its people did not write.  Others, impressed with the rapid pace of change in human affairs since the coming of agriculture, assume that nothing much of real significance happened in the Paleolithic era -- and no change meant no history" (12).  This quote would seem to illustrate a common theme in history -- we only assimilate what we want assimilated -- oral, written, illustrated, or though song and dance.  But there is a hidden notion within this quote that could be easily missed.  What Strayer is actually getting at is the notion of a common ancestry -- a lack of writing not equating to the "juicy" tidbits we commonly find in history books but to a history of where we came from as would be alleged by the majority of historians.

Both Strayer and the previous passage indicate a newly minted mainstream belief system.  But how is it that Strayer comes to find such history in the Paleolithic communities as he commonly refers to them?  A third notion which can be gathered from the previous passage is that of interpretation.  Interpretation is the keyword of most of this era of history.  We know -- to some degree -- that it happened, but it's through our interpretations with which our understanding of the past comes to be formed.

In continuing the analysis of Strayer's writing, something that resonates rather strongly is the idea that the biblical history of society as assimilated by Catholicism (early Christianity), only focuses on the regions where events took place.  There was obviously more going on in the world, but biblical history is governed around a specific region which should be considered as we attempt to understand the Paleolithic as well as subsequent civilizations.  But what is also of interest is the account of "relative equality between the sexes with no-one having the upper hand" (27).  This interpretation doesn't seem to last very long, though, as the very next passage dictates a rather distant reality of sexual aggression and power by the San peoples.  These accounts would also seem to coincide with biblical evidence of the time.  By comparison, one might consider the social impact of the Chumash peoples by a similar light.  The proliferation of "wealth" is a major factor in our interpretation of a people who began developing separate trades and a primitive class system -- something the San would most likely detest.

In subsequent chapters, Strayer moves into the notion of the birth of civilizations, but also the birth of inequality, something that is alluded to in biblical history as well in reflected regions.  It's been thoerized that as man moved from the the necessity of shared responsibility in the home to a more laxed societal role, more time was freed up in order to take on the upper echelons of social leadership.  As a result, a change in social status also became evident in that women were still left at home while men were now in a position of power.  If we were to fastforward to Jesus' time, we would be rather astonished by the fact that the women of Christendom were the ones to carry the message of Jesus' resurection as it was obviously known at this time that women held little chance of social credibility.  Other themes that Strayer touches upon are that of slavery.  It's rather interesting that slavery much like the social standing of different people was not shared in the same light as it is today -- social oppression.  Similarly, slavery of the day had more hope for the offspring of current slaves in that they had the, most likely slim, possibility of becoming freed citizens. 

The current state of society as well as the growing societies of chapter three would seem to be more similar than different -- the only difference being the obvious advent of electronic technology.  We still face a world of oppression, we still face a world of slavery, it's just a matter of interpretation in how we choose to see the world around us and how we choose to interact with it. 

A Note on Works Cited and Formatting

Everyone writes, whether it's a blog, magazine article, book, or in the academic fields.  But what is new is the use of works cited pages, even in most average blog postings in that if people write and use the works of others, a works cited page is included as a means of validation.  The works cited section plays an important role in demonstrating the strength of one's writing as well as one's ability to find and validate information, but also in the validation of one's own information.  More so, to include a works cited page is to show one's maturity in writing and writen communication.  Similarly, MLA format will be used to cite works especially external quotations. 

What's in a name?

What's in a name?

I chose the above name for the blog because history does have a funny way of repeating itself.  Now the relationship between this notion and the blog's name is that the blog's name is a small snippet of code which is what we call an infinite loop in computer science in that it never ends and will go on forever (or until the computer runs out of memory).  Furthermore, the body of the loop (everything within the curly braces) contains a print statement which says "the past" such that the past always repeats itself and we always seem to encounter it in one form or another.