One game that I used to play as a kid was to try to turn things around and see the world from the opposite view. At the time, the most memorable was the conflict with Iran and their attack on the US embassy. I couldn't understand why they hated us. We were good people but they took our people hostage and I hated them with the passion of the teenaged boy I was at the time. I couldn't understand why President Carter just didn't bomb them as they were obviously evil.
I think I was typical of most 6th graders especially in a world where the information you are being fed is limited. What I didn't know was in 1954 the CIA raised a coup against the democratically elected government of Iran. The US Embassy was used as the base of operations for the coup and they reinstalled the Shah which led Iran to another 25 years of oppression and autocracy. When the Shah got sick, the radicals took control and the result was the Hostage Crisis.
The ironic thing was this put Ronald Reagan in office and I think the nation has been thinking like my simpler 6th grade self ever since. As a country, we've historically put our head in the sand and counted on American 'exceptionalism' to keep us world leaders but the Reagan years put that on overdrive. One of the biggest advantages we have as a society is the freedoms our system of government gives to us. The Constitution was the result of a lot of thinking by the founders who looked to the Roman Republic as a guide and tried to put together a document to avoid its fate.
For those that don't know, the Roman government was a marvel of its day and while it wasn't democratic like the Athenians their republic gave them great advantages as it allowed great men to rise and run its affairs while avoiding anarchy. There are many reasons the Roman Republic fell but the primary reason was simple. By the middle of the 1st century BC, the Senate was gridlocked and nothing could get done so army under leaders like Marius/Caeser/Octavian stepped in. The leaders of the city objected but when Octavian ran better than the Senate, the people of the city accepted the idea. By the time Octavian died, the idea of a Roman Republic was a forgotten memory of a simpler time.
Political theorist like John Locke used the Roman Republic as one of his guides when putting together his thoughts for a perfect society. The founders knew when they put together the US Constitution the greatest historical threat to a free society was the military which is why they insisted they could not allow the army to ever have enough power to ever have a repeat of the Roman Empire on American shores.
The 6th grader in me has always wondered - Is it possible that the United States could face a change in our government like happened to the Romans?
Things didn't happen overnight there as it took decades/centuries before the Republic ceased to function. As a kid I thought the British parliamentary system was a better form of government but as I've grown older I've grown to like the US Constitution. The framers were insistent on a separation of powers and created a strong tradition of separation between the military and government for them to ever be much of a viable threat to our freedoms.
I don't see a day when a general could conceivable take power like a Caesar but are there other threats?
This is the question I've always wondered. Movies like the 'Manchurian Candidate' or 'Red Dawn' pose ideas of a future where the freedoms we take for granted are stripping and we are pawns to foreign power but neither are realistic. Is there another way that we might end up pawns like the citizens of ancient Rome?
In recent years I have seen a disturbing trend. The founders could have never seen just how small the world would become. In their time no European had traveled crossed the continent but now we can do it in less than 4 hours in a plane. Information flow is even quicker, zipping all over the world at the speed of light. Vast warehouses of information have been gathered by private companies in an effort to sell us their wares. Public agencies with agendas we think we understand listen to phone conversations and track information on the internet. We are told to give Google access to our emails and we do it because they give us good products. We are told that it is ok for the government to track its citizens because they need these abilities to protect us.
This strikes me as something right out of the book '1984'. We seem glad to give up our 1st and 4th amendment rights without a fight and the trend of increased scrutiny of United States citizens scares me like nothing I've ever experienced in my life (sidenote - previously the worst was probably sitting under my desk as my 2nd grade class had an atomic bomb drill - it made me fear Russians well into adulthood). Add to this media that is consolidating so that 6 companies control most of how we get our information. The governmet is increasingly controlled by lobbyists who pay politicians to make sure their interests are inacted and some even create public policy.
It is a wonder that anything gets done by the United States government. Will a time occur when we are asking for a different type of leadership to get us out of this gridlock and if so, who will step in to save us?
Near Rome there is a river called the Rubicon that marked the boundary of Rome and its province to the north, Cisalpine Gaul. Armies weren't supposed to cross this river which was a way to keep its generals from interfering with the affairs of the city. Julius Caesar allegedly made the statement 'The die is cast' as he crossed the river on his way to take control of affairs in Rome. He knew the Rubicon was the point of no return.
Has the United States crossed the Rubicon in terms of the freedoms and liberties that were given to us in the Constitution? Did we cross a Rubicon on 9/11? Is it only a matter of time before we need a Caesar to save us? Does a Caesar actually exist?
We continue to trade our freedoms for the feeling of safety and an easier life. I'm sure the Romans felt the same way until the 'barbarians' showed up but I don't have an answer. I don't know if one exists and we may just have to get used to a world in which our every movement/action is monitored and politicians who no longer act with the will of the people as they obey their lobbyist masters and are re-elected with information fed to us from corporate media.
