Was doing a little light reading, Caesar and Christ, the 3rd volume of the Story of Civilization from Will Durant, written in 1944 and the 3rd of eleven books written over a lifetime. They are very well known, and the volume in question can be found here:
http://www.daniellazar.com/wp-content/uploads/Durant-Christ-and-Civ.pdfHere is a couple very small excerpts from the epilogue, keep in mind this was written in 1944, and about the fall of the Roman empire:
"Epilogue
I. WHY ROME FELL
-
A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has
destroyed itself within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in
her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her
bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.
: the ablest men married
latest, bred least, and died soonest. The dole weakened the poor,
luxury weakened the rich
Moral decay contributed to the dissolution. The virile character
that had been formed by arduous simplicities and a supporting faith
relaxed in the sunshine of wealth and the freedom of unbelief;
men had now, in the middle and upper classes, the means to yield to
temptation, and only expediency to restrain them. Urban congestion
multiplied contacts and frustrated surveillance, immigration brought
together a hundred cultures whose differences rubbed themselves out
into indifference. Moral and esthetic standards were lowered by the
magnetism of the mass; and sex ran riot in freedom while political
liberty decayed."
New remember, that was written in 1944 about Rome.................
That speech by Bill Whittle speaks much the same, except he's not talking about Rome.
You know the saying about learning from the past................I've always enjoyed reading about history, found this epilogue very interesting.
