Of empire and collapse

Can we see where we're going through the lens of history?

Over at the Woodpile Report, Ol' Remus assesses our current state of affairs in light of the Roman experience:

The notion of progression from kingdom to republic, to empire and collapse was well in place by (British artist Thomas) Cole's time, in fact, it was the accepted reading of history long before the Constitutional Convention. Consider Franklin's statement, 'you have a Republic, if you can keep it.' In our time the notion has taken on the urgency of impending inevitability, perhaps because Sovereign movements, the Austrian School and the like can hardly rise Phoenix-like until there are ashes to rise from, or perhaps because Julius Caeser didn't precipitate a civil war by crossing the Rubicon with a gaggle of rebels in tow, he crossed it in good order with a regular field army. The parallels to our own "repurposed" commands and the ongoing militarization of the DHS are ominous.

Collapse, and the acknowledgement of collapse, are not necessarily synonymous. Using some historical benchmarks, Ol' Remus is among those who make the case the unthinkable is already underway.