America is Decadent - But Still Not Rome (II)

[@Charlie-Em]

That secular calvisim episode gave me a whole new language with which to analyze Americanism.

[@Bronxguyanese]

Yep from wokiesm to capitalism. America is laced with calvinism.

[@josiahandre_]

So facts.

[@shannonm.townsend1232]

Matt Christman has deep historical dives on this very thing.

[@Lord.murugan]

America is a company...a corporation.......not a country 👁️🔱

[@apchsiri1156]

James Lafond: it's an economic zone based on human trafficking for over 400 years.

[@zacheryhernandez7298]

so original

[@williambranch4283]

Successor to British West Indies.

[@buckodonnghaile4309]

Let's hear you explain it In detail rather than parrot that ol trope?. The last person I asked got the definition of 'corporation"wrong.

[@anarkitty0]

It's a plutocracy not a corporation!

[@A0Refrigerator]

You can definitely taste the malaise in the air. The shot callers are too insulated from working class woes. I don't believe this is going to get better any time soon. I think when people look back on America, if anyone is around to look back on it, they'll probably say that it spent too much time exporting its negative traits and not enough time exporting beneficial ones. I would have much preferred to see America push for an international bill of rights based on their own, instead we got sprawling suburbia.

[@chan_martin]

FDR was the last president who cared. He wanted a 2nd bill of rights that would guarantee all of our basic human rights, including affordable health care and housing, yet it was turned down. Now we vote in crooked billionaires to lead us while people cant even afford to cover their basic needs with their paycheck. Greed and hubris has infested the government and it will be our downfall.

[@zeerakkhan7806]

18:27 “the populist message “ by the citizens of the US Empire, is fundamentally about the dismantling of the imperial system, and domestically, this manifests itself as populism.

[@thewizzla]

It is not a historical comparisson. It is much deeper. The empire never died. We are still in Babylon we are still under the foot of Rome. There has only ever been one empire. It is not a historical game of comparisson itis a spiritual reality that the real empire is an empire of the mind. An empire that enslaves the human soul.

[@himpim642]

bs.but os yupacal of fried brfain muericna or thsoe who listen ot their insane conpriacies.

[@shannonm.townsend1232]

Are you reading the Exegesis

[@thewizzla]

@shannonm.townsend1232 🌟

[@thewizzla]

🐟

[@cfroi08]

17:38 So that's where that slogan comes from. A lot of misconceptions about Aristocracy and Clergy, they were were separate entities and did not get along. The aristocrats wanted the church's land and for them to pay more of the taxes/debt hence why the Templars were brought to a kangaroo court.

[@nicholasflamel1134]

It seems to me like America is heading toward toward a form of Techno-Feudalism instead of a classic Oligarchy. Look at how much power Elon Musk is trying to wield as an unelected Tech Bro right now.

[@cfroi08]

Wishful thinking, techno-feudalism would be an upgrade. No we have what Rome, Venice, Switzerland, and the Dutch have. A massive merchant empire run by Oligarchs in banking. Tech bros are higher up there but they're not in the banking class at the time.

[@StaticSkater]

President Elon

[@nicholasflamel1134]

@@cfroi08 Technically, oligarchies are run by a VERY small number of powerful people. That isn't what we have here in America. Many factions are paying huge legalized bribes to influence our government. The largest of those are computer tech, pharma, and high tech weapons companies. They fight each other for increasingly large pieces of the monetary pie. Feudalism...

[@cfroi08]

@@nicholasflamel1134 that is also true, the real players are the wealthy banks below them are the tech bros and big pharma.

[@philipm3173]

8:53 Jubilee!

[@UnexpectedWonder]

Yep. That's directly in Scripture. I thought of that as well. The Year of Jubilee after every 50 years if I recall correctly.

[@zeerakkhan7806]

1:28 I don’t agree with your definition of the word decadence as a lack of common understanding or framework for governance. The standard definition of the word decadence is “moral or cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury.” The real problem facing the US Empire ruling the West is not as much decadence, but HUBRIS. Perhaps one may argue that decadence leads to hubris, but hubris disconnects the imperial elites from reality, and from understanding the world as it truly is. This delusional thinking leads to an inevitable demise, as the solutions and policies put forth to solve the major issues are based on false understanding and assumptions.

[@shannonm.townsend1232]

Not Rome. But it is empire in decline; an unraveling hegemony.

[@adcaptandumvulgus4252]

Didn't Rome fall several times? (if so, the final fall of the east or west?)

[@shannonm.townsend1232]

Babylonian debt-forgiveness day sounds fire.

[@HappyMutantSpeaks]

Merry Christmass! This is a notion of decadence I have never encountered. I would have termed what you're talking about 'breakdown of communication', 'failure of metanarrative' etc. Regardless, what you are pointing to is happening.

[@arandmorgan]

Thats alright then, everything is absolutely fine.

[@zeerakkhan7806]

18:40 I disagree, this is not a “global phenomenon” but a problem plaguing the US based Western Empire. To think that the west alone represents the globe is hubristic.

[@kennethoneill4176]

The problem is most other countries are either declining or struggling right now because of to much debt and collapse in birth rate. So there is a much bigger problem with debt around the world that is going to be a burden to a shrinking population. Americans we just like to forget the rest of the world exist when it comes to our problems

[@kennethoneill4176]

World GDP in 1960 when USA had 40% of world GDP was 1.1 trillion dollars. With the USA having a GDP just over 500 billion dollars. Current world GDP is about 110 trillion dollars with usa somewhere between 27-29 trillion. That is not decline

[@luckypozzo3068]

The fact that the democrats are now the conservative party is lost on most, great observation. The Obama/ Trump shift will be mentioned with the Lincoln shift or the Nixon shift.

[@TheKanjified]

America is a place geared towards working, not towards living.

[@alexandermoody1946]

I do not really like talking about politics. Here in the United kingdom there is nothing that either established parties or really any of the fringe parties can actually offer to give any real imperatives to create a perception of defence and this very bad for the idea or lack of with regard to representative democracy.

[@JCRobbinsGuitar]

Insightful lecture Dr. Cecil. Thank you. Merry Christmas 🎄

[@user-gv6xn9cs3b]

Oh dear, what do you think of fascism then? Clarity, vigor, a shared vision, strong man authoitarianism..?

[@unusual686]

Dr. Cecil, excellent as always, but I have to disagree with you regarding how to label each party*. The Democratic party might be considered economically conservative at this point in time, but definitely not conservative with regards to social norms. Indeed, at this point globalization is a liberal economic view, as opposed to the conservative view of the closed economy. When you state "~the Republicans don't have a replacement philosophy", I think the case be made that their philosophy is to move the country back socially to the 1950's and before. I see why you're labelling each party as you do, and *I don't think the labels matter too much, as the actions of each party speak for themselves.

[@metsfanal]

I have to push back on this. How are the republicans trying to go back to the '50s exactly? Are they trying to bring back segregation? Are they trying to ban gay marriage? Do they want interracial marriage banned? Are they doing anything about no fault divorce? In fact it was Reagan, the president I've seen most Republicans point to as their quintessential leader who passed that law. Speaking of Reagan, he is also held up as the sort of founder of the neoliberal world order. Furthermore, the liberal system has been in place for the last sixty or so years, so conservatives definitionally would be trying to conserve that system. Liberal in the global sense is a strange word. It's not what leftists want. Conservative parties and business interests throughout the world are the ones arguing for that system. To say it's not conservative and to try to make it sound like something the left side of the asile is arguing for is playing word games disingenuously.

[@williambranch4283]

Democrat ... not democratic or populist. Hillary super delegates, Harris selection and elitist.

[@nicholasflamel1134]

Your mistake is believing what the 2 political parties are SAYING. If you look at what they are actually DOING, you are way off the mark. You are watching the spectacle, but paying no attention to what is going on behind the curtain.

[@td0713]

@@nicholasflamel1134Can you expand on this, what are they actually doing that would lead you to this conclusion?

[@nicholasflamel1134]

@@td0713 Follow the legal battles they are fighting and watch what they actually pass through congress, especially if it is bipartisan. You will see it has nothing to do with the ridiculous culture war they posture about on network news. That is a well orchestrated distraction to keep the public distracted.

[@joshuatabke6893]

They called it a debt jubilee

[@shannonm.townsend1232]

Kind of like a Potlatch, a way for ruling class to ameliorate social contradictions accrued during the year, while dealing with the problem of surplus; although this is not how Bataille conceptionalized it.

[@GulfOfAmerica25]

I just think people would feel better if we had better architecture for example if we could hold ourselves to a higher standard it would lower cortisol . One way to do this would be to start incorporating in .. idk like greek or roman or even gothic architecture in a modern / futuristic way vs so called plastic looking " brutalist " ( ugly ) architecture . Its like plastic water bottles vs . Glass or copper water bottles . We all know ( consciously/ or sub consciously ) which type of environment is better for us .

[@Michael-rw1cq]

america is not decadent because has no money😢

[@Jpturlax01]

I'd argue that it is inherently a left vs. right wing issue. The Democratic party AND the Republican party are at the end of the day, the same party, a conservative right-wing party. Just look at their policy issues (economically and foreign policy wise none of that culture war bs they use to blind you people into thinking they're different when in truth it is just paint that masks over their actual material policies that really affect people in education industry and military). Yeah sure you can argue their bases aren't, the Republican party is technically more anarchic and want to tear the system down violently but have no system to replace it (except for whatever ancient religious text or historical system they wish to revive and go back to) and so I argue the Democratic party base is Conservative, the Republicans are Regressive... So where are the Progressives? The radical left. Yup. In logic to want to tear down a system to replace it with something means to be a radical. The radical right is regressive as is stated by their policies. The radical right wants to either return to monarchy or theocracy no matter how they try to paint their rhetoric, such as giving presidents King-Like power effectively making them kings but in title only or as the Christian Nationalists as they like to call themselves want to change the system to follow biblical/religious rules (a theocracy) or the Techbros wanting to make their CEO-God kings into basically the Robber-Barons/Aristocrats of old such as ruling over much of the nation's economy through monopolies and skirting government regulations. All these are systems of the past repainted and rebranded to sound like its anything new just at different points in the past. So that leaves the radical left as the politics that fit both criteria of being both radical in wanting to change the system, but aren't regressive. America doesn't have a party that wants to progress, hence they become stagnant, or worse yet regress into the past. They have a conservative party that holds back the most radical from the left by pretending to be left-wing, while the other party is a regressive one.

[@walterbishop3668]

I have a feeling you made this right after watching the Megalopolis

[@GoodBaleadaMusic]

Rome had a base indigenous culture. At it worst it still had a population who treasured that ability. The were not settlers. America has never tested the country. Its never even been defended militarily. London and Paris are still where capital will fly when the supply ships stop. It's basic and obvious game result. Scary for some. Fun for most.

[@amochswohntet99]

You may think that everyone is confused and disoriented and decadent as a result, but you’re just uninformed.

[@AnonymousFriend-i7l]

A vision!-->A set of strategies!-->Then plans! Wash and Repeat!

[@constantobjects]

There is partisan opinion in here from this speaker that runs counter to the vast majority of political science research today, so, I had to stop listening at 6:45 because my time is valuable and I do not have time for nonsense fever dreams and meaningless useless rhetoric.

[@nicholasflamel1134]

... and yet you had time to write a short paragraph telling others why YOU particularly can't bring yourself to watch the rest of a KZbin video.

[@shannonm.townsend1232]

Do you have time to say more about the partisan opinion

[@user-gv6xn9cs3b]

Yes, Judaism had a 7 year debt and slavery and property sold thru debt - rollover!

[@chan_martin]

Its maybe no coincidence that America took Roman law as the basis for their justice system and who would have thought money and power would control how the law works.

[@williambranch4283]

Takes olive oil to greece Roman corruption ;-)

[@Charlie-Em]

First❤