“The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity—a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.”
Isaac Asimov
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
Isaac Asimov
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
Isaac Asimov
“In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.”
Isaac Asimov
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/02/09/mexican-national-found-guilty-illegal-voting/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
Ecclesiastes 1
“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.”
So the human condition is more like “Groundhog Millennia” where we repeat the same mistakes over and over again because we forget the past, regardless of the advances in science and technology.
“The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought.”
I suppose it’s what you mean by Empire. Does Empire means that one nation plunders the world to live at the expense of the others? Then it deserves not to be saved nor will it be as all of nature plots against it. I think this is what Asimov had in mind. It’s born in selfish interest, not self interest. There is a difference. Selfish interest is Me, Me, Me, NOW. Self interest is what is best for all concerned because that enhances in the long term what is best for me. It’s a lot like marriage. If it’s take, take, take you will soon end up in divorce court. Marriage is the process of yielding to the self interest of another to get your own self interests addressed.
The Roman Empire preyed upon others and eventually preyed upon its own citizens. It was said that all roads lead to Rome. All wine, bread and valuables led to Rome and nary a peep from the government nor citizens about their selfish interests of consuming others productivity as long as it benefited them. Why am I reminded of the Petrodollar?
In terms of time, Empires last a day. The greatness of an Empire is not what it can take from others, but what it can give to others. If an Empire is based upon self interest, and not selfish interest, it will last as long as it ascribes to that principle. When it fails to live up to that high ideal, it suffers in its undoing commensurate to the satisfaction provided by its ill gotten gains.
This is the immutable Law of God, the immutable Love of God to save mankind. It is the Law of Karma, what goes around comes around, do unto others what one would have others do unto you, and as you do it to other you do it unto yourself. It seems in our hard hardheartedness we have to suffer before we change, before we address our selfish interests. Karma is not punishment but a reminder that actions have consequences and to choose actions in accordance with a high ideal.
Some liken America to an Empire, much the same as the Roman Empire. One can certainly draw similarities. Constant war, debasement of the currency, distraction from real life, a disconnect between the rulers and the peasantry, lies and more lying, civil strife and divisiveness and a final feeding of the Empire upon its citizens with every manner of regulations, taxes and fees.
To fight a failing Empire is not to restore the past Empire to the greatness of its failed ideal of war and plunder, which many are calling for with the American Empire, but to look to a future Empire of cooperation and mutual self interest. Something that leave each side satisfied with the bargain.
Will a falling Empire be “not easily fought”. I think it will be easy. It must start with you, tho, a majority of one. The majesty of the Taj Mahal began with one brick, the cornerstone, in the foundation with the right mind set.
The fight with yourself between your selfish nature and your selfless nature will be terrible indeed. That has been the terrible fight since the beginning of time. Choose a high Ideal and make that the cornerstone of your life. Then the rest will be easy.