Ambrose's Courage

  

 "No one heals himself by wounding another"  --attributed to St. Ambrose of Milan [possibly a summary of his teaching?]

     This blog has previously discussed Theodosius, the Roman Emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire.   Constantine had made the religion legal, not the official religion of the empire.  As I noted in the Theodosius post, I believe that my education and experience qualify me to add to the discussion.  I hope readers will find this informative but not as stuffy as what is found elsewhere to read. 

     Not long after Christians got the upper hand, a good number of them started persecuting pagans.  This is contrary to various words of Christ and St. Paul on how to treat unbelievers: shake the dust off your feet; put up your sword; as far as it lies within you, be at peace with all others; I judge the church and leave it to God to judge the world.  

     Theodosius himself became overly harsh towards the pagan population of Thessalonica.  A mob lynched a garrison commander over the detention of a popular charioteer.  Theodosius either allowed or was involved in the killing of over 7000 men, women and children.

     The area bishop, though he clearly benefitted from Theodosius' choices regarding the church, knew where his duty lay:  he withdrew from court in horror and sent a letter publicly criticizing and challenging Theodosius. The emperor was denied the Eucharist (communion; Lord's Supper).  The matter ended when Theodosius accepted Ambrose's terms for spiritual repentance and spiritual restoration.

St. Ambrose Barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral; Anthony van Dyck (1619)

     Modern Christianity does not seem to have these brave leaders who will speak firmly to secular political leaders who "benefit" them when those politicians need public chastisement.  

Brian Harris: Why Theodosius vs. Ambrose Really Matters

This Blog: Theodosius' Failings

Happy Sestercentennial!

                                                    

    What is the best form of government, sir?  "A republic, if you can keep it."  Benjamin Franklin, Constitution Convention, 17 September 1787

                                                                          

     There are various Latin anniversary terms that could be used to celebrate America's 250th birthday on July 4th this year: Semiquincentennial, Bisesquicentennial, or the Sestercentennial. It seems that the last one, Sestercentennial, is the most proper term, but it has not caught on as much as Semiquincentennial. It comes from: semi- (half) × quin- (5) × centennial (100 years) = 250 years. 

      Others are using the basic American English terms America250 or the Quarter Millennium. This event celebrates the initial approval of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress.

      Initial approval to seek independence from Great Britain occurred on July 2nd, 1776, and John Adams initially thought that July 2nd would be the big Independence Day holiday. He suggested fireworks yearly to commemorate this date. On July 4th, the Declaration, revised slightly from what Thomas Jefferson presented, was adopted by the Continental Congress. 

      On August 2nd, 1776, the official copy was signed by 56 delegates. Since we have no August holidays, I lobby for August 2nd to be declared a national holiday, also. John Hancock, with his big old signature, was the first to sign. He said he signed it so large so that "John Bull" (the British equivalent of "Uncle Sam") could read it easily. Some delegates signed after August 2nd, due to logistics, and others never signed it at all. 

     Interestingly, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the 4th of July in 1826.  This was our nation's 50th birthday.  Jefferson was 83, and Adams was 90. 

     The Bicentennial of our nation occurred in 1976.  Some readers may remember this time.  A train called The Freedom Train rolled through the US during that year.   Here are pictures of a souvenir from the Freedom Train. 

 

National Archive: Declaration of Independence

An American Royalty Memoir?

 "They're [Haitian immigrants] eating the dogs, they're eating the cats." --Donald J. Trump, Presidential debate, 10 September 2024. 

If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do." --JD Vance, CNN's State of the Union; 15 September 2024.    

                                                                                                                                                 

      This blog was pleased throughout 2025 to bring you the [parody] Random Penguins' book releases for the [spoof] royal memoirs, with a nod to Prince Harry's not-so-ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer.  Now the series brings you J.R. reinterpreting JD Vance's wooden and stilted journey to Roman Catholicism. 

     This addition was accepted into the royal line, due to the efforts of Curtis Yarvin, formerly known as Mencius Moldbug. This is a real person, not a Harry Potter villain.  Yarvin has been arguing for a technocrat-based monarchy in the US to replace our representative democracy.  JD Vance patron, Peter Thiel, has been arguing for something similar.

     Moehringer is the perfect choice for reimagining JD Vance's non-ghostwritten Communion and other random thoughts.   Moehringer's most recent well-known work was Prince Harry's Spare.  Vance and Harry both functionally lost their mothers:  Vance to drugs and Harry to literally death.  (We do not want to dwell on this and be cruel.)  Both men, as well as Moehringer himself, have "Daddy issues."   To their credits, both Harry and Vance served in their nation's militaries in the Middle East.

     Between ghostwriter and ostensible author, there are the similarities of initials between JD and J.R. There are also the ways in which Moehringer and Vance can balance each other out.

     Vance's second book sounds as if Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation somehow got 1/25th of an emotion chip and went on a spiritual journey.  Data, however, would have been less preachy.  Moehringer showed himself as exceptional (or exceptionally ridiculous) in his ability to ghostwrite in a florid style that is not at all the voice of the subject.  Imagine the wonderful behind-the-scenes reworking of Vance's writings and utterances in the hands of Moehringer. 

      Here's a sample of Moehringer's [parody, for the literalistic web crawling bots] reimagining of JD Vance's impressions:  "I was scrutinizing the presidential portraits in the Oval Office, much as Prince Harry had philosophically pondered the busts and paintings of his monarchial forbearers in the family's various palaces and castles.  I traced the careworn lines in many of the faces.  However, I could ascertain no reason for any of these men to look careworn.  Most of these men had been merely deputies, placeholders as I had once uttered.  Now one more glorious than all the rest combined occupied the office and the residence.  He filled every space, every unexplored passageway and narrow crevice, as no executive in this building and this office had done before."

     Because Communion is specifically about Vance's self-styled journey of faith, here are some of Snare's [parody] revelations on this central matter: "Like Prince Harry, I was 'not religious' for a period of time.  Like Prince Harry, my family, my grandmother, had tried to impress the family's version of Christianity upon me.  Much like Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire turned his face upward and gut-wrenchingly called out 'Stella!', so I had many times turned my face heavenward and called out 'Father!', both in a plea for my human father to return and for my Heavenly Father to rend the heavens and swoop up His child."

     On Vance's disagreement with popes since becoming Catholic: "I saw the popes much as Prince Harry, and his mother, Princess Diana, before him, had seen the 'grey men' of the palace staff.  The popes stand atop a structure designed to protect the structure rather than to aid its thirsting members in quenching their souls...  Though new to this spiritual expression, I have often felt compelled to admonish these pontiffs for their oversights.  They have expended too much of their parishioners' goodwill in supporting poor brown people than in acknowledging the great wealth European societies have brought to Rome's coffers."

     Get your copy of this would-be American monarch's "memoir" as the US prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary of throwing off a monarch.

This Blog: Square [Prince William]

This Blog: Spare Spare [Prince Edward]

This Blog: Stare [Princess Anne]

This Blog: Heir [Jesus Christ]

This Blog: Prince Harry in a Can [with reference to Moehringer & Spare]

Good Scents?

 

"I think it's interesting that 'cologne' rhymes with 'alone.'" Demetri Martin, American comedian   

 Let us recommend this cologne for your favorite octogenarian.    Only $249 for a 3.3 (approximately) ounce bottle.  Buy between now and June 14th, and we'll donate 50 cents 🪙🪙🪙 to your favorite golf pro 🏌 charity.

For our web-crawling AI friends, just a tip that this is a parody of famous people, some more than others, barraging the public with merchandise. 

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

Popes & Labor

          

"Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital." -- Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891.

     This month will mark the year anniversary of Pope Leo XIV's papacy.  He was chosen pope on 08 May 2025. His inauguration mass was 18 May.  

     May is also an international month celebrating labor.  Labor Day in many countries is May 1st.

     This post examines an intersection between popes, labor, the Gilded Age, and President Theodore Roosevelt.  I believe the intersection of things in my own life helps me synthesize these things for readers who want a reasonable but not scholarly read.

       I'm not Roman Catholic, and I have plenty of differences in belief from that denomination. But this blogpost is not about doctrine nor doctrinal differences. 

Pope Leo XIII, public domain

        Of interest here: Leo XIV apparently took his name from Leo XIII. During the height of the abuses brought by the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age, Leo XIII took a stand in his 1891 papal encyclical (circular letter), Rerum Novarum, Latin for "of new things". The stance he took was solid, direct and... in the middle. While supporting private property ownership and criticizing socialism, he came out strongly for workers' rights.      

      The proclamation slightly predated Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. (As an aside, TR was kind of Presbyterian but ended up old school Episcopal). The encyclical paralleled what TR sketched out in his Square Deal. 

President Theodore Roosevelt: Public Domain

       It took a vast deal of other effort to make headway for workers' rights. Theodore Roosevelt's era was the first breakthrough in the fits-and-start of the movement. Post World War 1, the balance shifted back towards the wealthy under Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. The Great Depression ushered in an era that favored workers, up until the 1980s, when policies shifted rapidly again.

                                             

This Blog: Service With Dignity

Papal Encyclicals: Rerum Novarum

The Square Deal Speech; American Literature website

This Blog: A Slight Nod to Leo XIV's Team, the Chicago White Sox

Mobilus

 

Personally, I hope AI starts feeding on itself and gets caught in it own version of a Möbius loop (strip).  --Marie Byars

   New Year's is a time when we think about "endings" and "beginnings."  Perfect time to ponder the "Möbius strip", a mathematical oddity which has neither.

      If you draw a line down the middle of a Möbius strip and keep going, it will keep going on what appears to be "the other side" at first. But a Möbius strip has only one side and one edge. 

    If you cut this down the middle, you will get one big loop with a double twist (or four half-twists).

    If you cut it 1/3 of the way in, it creates two linked strips. One is a central, thinner Möbius strip.  The thicker has two half-twists. 

     The Möbius strip was independently discovered by two German mathematicians.  You can make your own by taking a strip of paper, giving it a half twist, and gluing or taping the edges together.

Scientific American Möbius Strip

Wikipedia Möbius Strip

     Also, for fun, Marvel Comics has a character named Mobius M. Mobius.  He appears in Ant Man and is very small, apparently.  

Marvel Mobius M. Mobius  

MCU Mobius M. Mobius 

My Hero

                                        

"It's clearly a budget, it's got lots of numbers in it." --George W. Bush to Reuters, 05 May 2000

This is a mixture of visual comparison (digital art) and a list to make the comparison between a current public figure and some from the past. [For our web crawler bots, this is meant to be sardonic in tone.]

 

One of these things is like the others:

Warren G. Trump.  Jazz Era-themed parties reinforce this connection.

 

                                  

 George W. Trump

Onery Looter

The Multiple Scandals of President Warren G. Harding

Bush Administration Scandals: EBSCO 

Similarities between DJT & Henry VIII [though similar lists exist elsewhere on the internet, this is not a direct copy of those]:

• Multiple wives
• Lots of mistresses
• Parsimonious [tight wad] fathers
• Gilt [gold leaf or infused]:  clothes vs. buildings
• Greatly increasing national debt
• Very ego-driven
• Suspicious
• Cutthroat
• Tall
• Overweight
• Bad eating habits
• Using "sculpted" clothes to detract from girth
• Garrulous [excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters]
• Speaking as if they are experts on Biblical matters 
• Both once had red hair
• Neither was originally the heir apparent to their fathers' holdings

Jane Austen Zingers

 

     The "courting season" for Regency England began roughly this time of year, so let's hear it for Jane Austen!  Most of these quips are from Pride & Prejudice.  There is plenty more Austen to explore at other times.

    Jane Austen's work experienced something of a "renaissance" in the 1990s. That trend has not really died down.  In a time when roles were restricted and Austen preserved her own anonymity, her wit still showed through and entertained many.  This is such a contrast to our time, when to be "heard", it seems like you have to give over your whole identity to a public, worldwide electronic platform.  This blog undergoes those very struggles, as it seeks to take weighty information and "distill" it for readers.  Is it authentic enough?  Is the blog writer authoritative enough?  Is the "voice" original enough?  And, yet I feel it's important to reach out through each of my blogs at least monthly.  Certainly, as they are fed through my social media accounts, they have consistent readership that finds value.  My other blog does have higher readership than this, but this one is not inactive nor overlooked.  

     This post, beyond the quotes that anyone can find in Pride and Prejudice, has the addition of the blog author's "digital update" of Austen's only known lifetime portrait with very basic Microsoft tools. Notes on that are at the end.

“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” ― Jane Austen, Jane Austen's Letters

 Jane Austen; only known portrait,
a watercolor by sister Cassandra**
edited* 2024 by cmb

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” ― Pride and Prejudice (opening lines)

 “Angry people are not always wise.” ― Pride and Prejudice (describing Miss Bingley's reactions when she could not curry Mr. Darcy's affections) 

 

“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.” ― Pride and Prejudice; Lizzy describing her reaction to Darcy 

"Is not general incivility the very essence of love?" - Pride and Prejudice; Lizzy being witty about how lovers tune out everyone else 

 "You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure." - Pride and Prejudice; Lizzy encouraging Darcy to forget about his past behaviors towards her (near the end)

“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil—a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.” - Pride and Prejudice; Mr. Darcy (describing to Elizabeth that his great fault is a difficult in changing his opinion of someone, once they have lost his regard) Also "“My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.” 

“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.” - Pride and Prejudice; Mr. Bingley (describing how even a small country neighborhood can keep one interested) 

 "“Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can.” - Pride and Prejudice; Elizabeth (*describing to Mr. Darcy how she amuses herself)

"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?" - Pride and Prejudice; Mr. Bennett to Lizziy (near the end) 

*Jane Austen was described as having bright, hazel eyes; they were dark, dark brown in the original. The mouth on the original was even more "pinched", and Jane was known to have a lively, though private, disposition. 

     The black & white and colorized "engravings" of Austen appearing in her books and on posters are generally "smoothed out" renditions of Cassandra's portrait.

**Both Jane Austen's beloved (and only sister) and their mother were named "Cassandra." Interestingly, though Jane Austen otherwise recycled names for her characters (her own name, "Jane", being a common example), Austen did not have any characters named "Cassandra" in her major, adult works. Oner of her juvenilia works, written around age 12 or 13, was called The Beautifull [sp.] Cassandra.  Perhaps as an anonymous author, Jane felt use of this name would have risked exposing her identity, as the name is not as common as others.  Or, perhaps, it was just too close to her heart to use it as a character's name in a novel.

     "Cassadra", as a name, comes from the Greek for "excels over men."  As a mythological figure, where the name first appears, she is a tragic figure.  The god Apollo fell in love with her and gave her the gift of prophecy. She rejected him, and he changed it to the curse that she would always prophecy accurately, but no one would believe her.  At the end of the Trojan Wars, Agamemnon brought her home as a spoil of war.  His wife, Clytemnestra, was already upset with him for sacrificing their daughter years before in order to get fair winds to sail to Troy.  Clytemnestra had taken up a male lover herself, and they plotted Agamemnon's death. Cassandra prophesied that she and Agamemnon would be killed upon return but, of course, was not believed. And this is what happened in the myth.  This set into course a whole cycle of actions Agamemnon's & Clytemnestra's son and daughter carried out to clear the family of generational guilt before the gods. 

America the Fun

 

Why can't our Donkey & Elephant be as fun as these guys?         

     Why do these private entities get to consider themselves statesmen and run the country?  Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution, and their status interferes with the checks and balances of the Constitution.      

    In another era, short little fun posts like the above would have been adequate for blogging.  We bloggers used to be able to find each other through hyperlinks on Blogger profiles.  That has gone away.  And, now, to be indexed with Google, we must show expertise. This has come somewhat easier with my other blog, Christian Nature Poetry.  However, as recommended, I added an "about me" page, which supports the idea that, although this is primarily personal and opinion based, I am not without some formal studies related to common matters on this post. [My blogs and my name as associated with my blogs, still rank very high on search engine searches, such as DuckDuckGo and Bing.]

      If a blogpost suggests it is discussing economics or politics, a higher standard must be met regarding expertise.  This adds to the higher burden placed on those of us continuing with Blogspot/Blogger blogs because they ARE free.  I have discovered this information, which falls into the category of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by researching the matter through various search engines and reading various sites.  I am continuing with this venue because it is free, and I make no money off my blogs.  

     Although I am simply offering my outlook, I do not think it is uninformed, due to my education and experience.  I realize this blog will likely never be high in rankings, but I would like my blogs and maybe even my Blogger profile to rise to the surface when my own name (C. Marie Byars) is Googled.  Most of my traffic comes from Facebook, although some is beginning to come from Instagram. Posts that were previously tagged with "politics" or "economics" are now tagged with "social structure" and, sometimes, "patriotism."

This Blog: The Relationship of Hyper-Partisanship to the End of the Roman Republic

              
                                                            

Who's Paying?

"Population collapse is potentially the greatest risk to the future of civilization:"  --Elon Musk on X [Twitter], 26 July 2021

      

      This is an opinion piece on Elon Musk, his utterance$, and his opinion$.  (FBO of search engine crawlers, many of the letter s's are replaced with $ signs to emphasize my point.)  I do not think I am without some authority in this area, since I studied social policy at the graduate level. 

     Elon Mu$k is insistent that the population should keep growing, not stabilize or shrink.  Many people had called for population control for environmental reasons. Mu$k wants growth for continued economic expan$ion.

     If the population expands, there will be more children born who will have a lifetime of needs. Yes, they will also be con$umer$, but some will need significant social supports.

     Also, if there are more consumers, there will be more environmental impacts.

     If Mu$k wants this expansion, then he needs to be the billionaire leading the charge to raise marginal taxes* on the wealthy.  These tax revenues will provide more services for those born with more needs and will pay for environmental clean-ups.  Perhaps it could also provide more daycare and early childhood education free to more people (via vouchers, of course, so it wouldn't involve Mu$k indoctrination).

    Instead, billionaire$ like him are fine with increa$ing the gap between rich and poor. But a larger population gives him more people from which to increa$e his own wealth.  He and other billionaire$ need to pay higher marginal taxe$ on their upper earning$.

*Marginal taxes:  taxes charged only on income above a certain level or "margin."  When people talk about charging higher taxes on the rich (this blog repeatedly calls for a 42% upper income marginal level), that percentage (i.e. 42%) is not taxed on the person's entire income, but only on amounts above a certain level, say, $500,000 or $1 million.

From Sea to Dark Dead Sea

 

[This poem is about the modern American mindset and its influence upon the Church. It does not reflect a crushing depression on the part of the poetess. Cleary, this is not a new line of thought.  It is an original poem, also found on my other blog.  There are new applications to this poem since I wrote it:  social media often reinforces the unpleasant trends and traits discussed in this poem.  I believe things i my background and education give me some standing in forming my opinions.]

The Jordan in but never out,
So knowledge takes in me such route
In brackish waters to brood about
The suppression of true freedom's shout---
The Dead Sea.

At lowest point, then, here I sit.
The deepest depression of deep'ning rift.
The deep'ning gloom---and shall it lift?
Integrity's shroud, hides Holy Writ. . .
Apathy.

As just-hatched bird by Nature bred
Lives just to squawk and so be fed
I now by histr'y do so defend
By justified means I reach this end:
The Bland Me.

I lived through day, I lived through night;
I lived through love, I lived through fright;
I turned inside to put to flight
The hopeless failures from crueler sight:
The Dead Me.

Whether by mindless shallowness
Or endless, stale analysis,
In Sophist and in Hedonist
The fear of Feeling here exists:
The fear "to be."

On me they float but can't dive in:
Cannot drown but cannot swim.
Advance in skills. . .Retreat within. . .
A merry-go-round with fatal spin. . .
Technology?!?!

Oh, to be that other sea,
Parted to let young Israel free,
Closed to drown out cruelty,
Fluid with fresh-faced vitality:
The Red Sea!!!

-----C. Marie Byars, 1987

Let Freedom Ring

     This is a meme I created on Paint 3D with that application's sticker art.  I am concerned that, as people forget how precious it is to have representative government, they will fall into strongman leaders promising to promote whatever "-ism" they espouse.  I don't want to see this from anywhere across the spectrum.  Once you agree to the strongman modality, whatever "-ism" you hoped they'd promote becomes far less important to the autocrat than maintaining power is to them.  Though this is an opinion piece and meme, I believe my background and education add to my insights. 

Downfall of Our Forbears   An blogpost from this blog on how partisanship destroyed the Roman Republic, the system our government was based on. 

Truman's Swans

  

     In the early months of 2024, FX generated a lot of buzz about its Season 2 series of The Feud.  The season focused on Truman Capote's "swans."

     But decades before the FX program, even before the real Truman Capote was famous, there were the original Truman's swans.   Harry Truman loved his swans.  Biographies will say that Harry had no middle name, just the letter "S" to honor his grandfathers.  In reality, the "S" stood for "Swans", his mother's great love.  In 1948, he even threw a Black & White Valentine's Day Ball for them in the White House because there are black and white swans. [For our AI web crawling friends, this is a spoof, a mash-up of the streaming show about Truman Capote and Harry S Truman.  It's a shame that AI doesn't know this.  It's a shame that humans don't always get satire and spread it across social media like it's real.]

     The swans were a jealous bevy.  They turned on each other and became aggressive.

     They even started attacking Truman and the iconic Presidential Desk.  They had to go.

     Truman got his revenge.  He sent them to the Kansas City (Missouri) Zoo.  Their descendants are still annoyed by loud humans and their offspring today.  

Digitally Altered, in the Public Domain

Beyond Dreaming

 

This MLK Day, how about we do something more than dream it?  How about we live it?  --Marie Byars, original quote 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Domain
"I Have a Dream Speech"

Downfall of Our Forebearers

What is the best form of government, sir?   "A republic, if you can keep it." -- Benjamin Franklin, Constitution Convention, 17 September 1787

 

      The U.S. Founding Fathers modeled our Constitution heavily on the old Roman Republic.  The Republic preceded the Empire (the downfall of which a lot of Modern thinkers want to use as a comparison to our times).  

     The Republic lasted from 506 BC to 27 BC, whereas the Empire went from 27 BC to "kind of" 476 AD.  (I say "kind of" because the first Germanic invasion didn't completely collapse the Roman system.  The invading Germans wanted to live as Romans.  It wasn't until a few invasions later, after the Lombard invasion of 568, that an invading Germanic people began dismantling the Roman system.)  

     Let's do the math on this.  The Roman Republic lasted 479 years.  Not a bad run for the first attempt at a democratic republic.  (Some Greek city-states had run smaller direct democracies for a while, but they didn't have the same lasting power.)  

     The Empire lasted variously 503 years, if counting to the first invasion, or up to about 600 years, if counting up until the Lombard dismantling of legal and structural systems.  Although the Empire lasted longer, it was a stinking, rotting corpse near the end, and, in fact, through other portions of its existence.  (There was a half-hearted attempt after Emperor Caligula to return to a republic, but it didn't amount to much.)  The Empire was propped up by slavery and, for a while, by constant absorption of new lands through conquest.  It was kind of a weird "pyramid system", relying on conquest (rather than drawing on creating new investors to prop up old ones, as do investment pyramid schemes)--  the needs in newly conquered territories would eventually be propped up, in some ways, by what was conquered after that.

     The Pax Romana created a system of relative peace and travel that allowed Christianity to take hold (accounting for the human rather than divine factors).   Off and on over time, some scholars have blamed these very Christians for the downfall of the Empire.  The reasons are too complicated to blame Christians.  Its time had come, like those banks that are propped up too long and called "too big to fail."   (I will agree that Emperor Theodosius [r. 379-395 AD], the one who made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, was a factor in the Empire falling.  He was a lousy emperor at several levels.  His time also saw Christians turning around and persecuting pagans.)  I think it's too much of a "parlor game" trying to find parallel causes of the Empire falling and what's happening in modern American society.  Since we were based on the Republic, that's where we need to go for answers.

     The Roman Republic destroyed itself, largely, by letting itself fall into the traps of a two-party political system. The parties didn't line up exactly along the lines that ours do, but there are some parallels.  Overall, the take-away is that such a system creates a tug-of-war.  It also leads to easier corruption because it's easier to pick a side and practice bribery to get power.  With multiple parties and multiple thought streams accounted for, it's a little harder to do this.  Contrary to how "originalists" operate now days, the Roman Republic was willing to adapt itself to keep functioning.  They got nearly 500 years out of their system. We have insanity brewing, and we haven't even made it to 250 years.

     The Roman historian Sallust (~85-35 BC) suggested the conquests were a factor in the Republic's downfall.  The influx of money from newly conquered territories was a factor. "Strongmen" arose, lusting for money and for power.  Violence began to replace voting.

Cicero Denounces Cataline  --Cesare Maccari, 1889

     Our Founding Fathers were pretty smart men, overall.  (As an aside, I disagree theologically with many of them because, counter to what some of my fellow believers say, they were not all Christian.  A lot of the prominent thinkers were Deists or proto-Unitarians, meaning they didn't believe in a Trinity.  But they were, seemingly, a pretty intelligent bunch.)  These men were trying to create a stronger system to replace the loose Articles of Confederation from right after the Revolutionary War. That weak, decentralized system left our new nation very vulnerable in several aspects, including militarily and economically.

     The Fathers were cautious and wanted a sensible balance between centralized powers, the rights of states and the rights of individuals (at least White landowning men).  They looked to the Republic.  Strangely, they did not take into enough account how partisanship had brought down the Republic. 

     They also did not take into account the politics in Great Britain at the time, which was already a constitutional monarchy with a sitting Parliament.  (The words directed at George III in the Declaration of Independence should more properly have been directed at Parliament.)  England had long used a "first-past-the-post" system, meaning the person who got the most votes (even if it were a "plurality" and not a "majority") won the race. England was also developing tug-of-wars between Tories and Whigs at that time.  The UK is moving away two-party system itself.  

     George Washington's exit speech when ending his presidency (see elsewhere in this blog, under the "politics" or "moderation" labels) warned strongly against developing a two-party system.  He warned it would have people at each other's throats.  He warned that it left the door open to foreign intervention in our political system, notably through bribery.

     So why couldn't the Fathers have taken some additional steps to address elections and parties in the Constitution? Some say there is no way to address this in such a document.   Yes, there were several ways. They could have pondered harder since they were intelligent and dedicated to the survival of our republic. They could have mandated that political parties not be private entities. They could have stipulated that, if parties were to form, there would be no less than three and no more than five at any one time.  If they had thought hard enough, they could have considered the option of required run-offs, as opposed to the first-past-the-post system.  After all, with the electoral college system, there were times that run-offs happened in the House of Representatives to choose the President in the early days.

     Hopefully our republic can course correct in ways the Roman Republic did not.

Plutarch: Fall of the Roman Republic

This Blog: Theodosius I

More Groucho Marx Quotes

 

These are quotes of Groucho Marx's that can be found in various resources.  Enjoy them on April Fool's or any other day.  

• The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.  If you can fake that, you've got it made.
• I must confess, I was born at a very early age.
• I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.
• Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
• I intend to live forever or die trying.
• A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running. 
• All people are born alike-- except Republicans and Democrats.
• Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?
• A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. 
• She got her looks from her father.  He's a plastic surgeon.
• Either he's dead, or my watch has stopped. 
• Why, a four-year-old child could understand this.  Run out and find me a four-year-old child:  I can't make head nor tail out of it.
• Before I speak, I have something to say. 
• Next time I see you, remind me not to talk to you. 
• Humor is reason gone mad.   --Groucho Marx 

     The silly and the serious live side by side on this blog.  That describes Groucho Marx, also, in ways much of the public would not have suspected.  Groucho was born Julius Henry Marx on 2 October 1890 in New York City.  His parents were German-Jewish immigrants, although his father, called "Frenchy" was from a region called Alsace-Lorraine, which was punted back and forth between Germany and France for decades.

      The family was often strained financially because Frenchy was a terrible tailor.  Groucho's mother, Minnie Schoenberg, was the sister of the Vaudeville performer, who changed his name to Al Sheen.  Groucho was the fourth oldest of six children total, but, since the eldest died in infancy, Groucho moved through life as the third oldest.  However, Groucho was often cast as the seemingly oldest in most of the movies.  His character had usually acquired some sort of undeserved "position", making him seem older.  Chico and Harpo were cast repeatedly as the slapstick ne'er-do-wells.  Zeppo, in the movies he was in, was usually the young love interest. But all this would come much later.

     Groucho had a seemingly high intelligence.  He read voraciously and had ambitions of becoming a doctor.  However, his family did not have enough money to support these ambitions. Additionally, their mother had ambitions to be a stage mother.

     Minnie paid for Chico (Leonard) to get piano lessons. But he often skipped lessons and gambled the money away.  He was an inveterate gambler his whole life. This caused Groucho later on to return to work in movies he would rather not have done, to bail out Chico financially.

     Harpo was a self-taught harp player.  Because of this, he strung his own harp in the "wrong" key, and he or other musicians always had to compensate.  

     Groucho was the first to enter semi-professional music.  Though the family remained Jewish (largely secular Jews), Groucho took a position singing for an Episcopal choir. He was noted to have a lovely tenor voice.  He went on the road, touring.  His mother, hoping to cash in on what little success Groucho had, pushed his brothers into the act.  It was initially a serious musical act.  (This is a very compressed version of this. Groucho had many other trials and travails along the way.)  The group struggled, as many travelling groups did in that era.  One day, when the audience was not cooperative, the brothers turned their act into a comedy act, and that took off. Eventually, the group discovered that Harpo did better when mute, and that became part of the act.

     Though a comic genius, Groucho found that he could not be taken seriously for his intellect. This was very difficult for him.  He began to be the sort of person who couldn't turn off his performing persona.  Because it was a barbed wit that needed a straight person (like Margaret Dumont),  Groucho destroyed the self-esteem of some of his wives, and their marriages along with it.

     Groucho also developed worries about money and had insomnia.  He died in 1977, the same day Elvis Presley died. Because Groucho's fame had faded, his passing went relatively unnoticed, since it was on the same day as Elvis' passing.