Ancient Rome was the world's most powerful empire for 500 years
At its height, Rome boasted of roads, public baths, and much else that was close to miraculous for the rest of the planet
Then came the Great Fall...
What happened has lessons for the world TODAY
A thread👇🏻
1/ In his book The City In History (1961), Lewis Mumford explains how Rome went from "Megalopolis to Necropolis." This great city set up its own demise in two ways: Panem et circenses. That is: "bread and circuses." Mumford: "Success underwrote a sickening parasitic failure."
2/ As Ancient Rome became prosperous, it became an unsustainable welfare state
Mumford writes that "indiscriminate public largesse" became common
A large portion of the population "took on the parasitic role for a whole lifetime"
3/ More than 200,000 citizens of Rome regularly received handouts of bread from "public storehouses"
Lewis Mumford wrote the desire to lead an industrious productive life had severely "weakened"
So what did people spend their time on?
Distractions, which meant circuses
4/ The Roman people, not working for their livelihood but living off of the prosperity of their city, became numb
Mumford: "To recover the bare sensation of being alive, the Roman populace, high and low, governors & governed, flocked to the great arenas" for games & distractions
5/ The entertainment in Rome included "chariot races, spectacular naval battles set in an artificial lake, theatrical pantomimes in which lewder sexual acts were performed"
Out of 365 days, more than 200 were public holidays and 93 were "devoted to games at the public expense"
6/ Consuming entertainment became the primary priority of Roman citizens in Rome's decadent phase
Lewis Mumford: "Not to be present at the show was to be deprived of life, liberty, and happiness"
Concrete concerns of life became "subordinate, accessory, almost meaningless"
7/ Ancient Rome could put half of its total population "in its circuses and theatres" at the same time! A new public holiday was declared to celebrate every military victory. But the number of holidays kept rising even when Rome's military prowess began to fail...
8/ Mumford writes that no empire had such an "abundance of idle time to fill with idiotic occupations"
Even the Roman emperors who privately despised the games had to pretend they enjoyed them for "fear of hostile public response"
9/ Bottom line. The very power and prosperity of Ancient Rome set the stage for its collapse. As welfare states expand around the world today, and entertainment options get ever more immersive, we are forced to ask a question: Is this Post-Industrial Civilization Rome, Part II?
What else is wrong with the modern world—beyond its obsession with endless entertainment?
1/ One line from an 1883 philosophy book gets to the heart of the matter: "Of all that is written I love only what a man has written with his blood" (Nietzsche). Writing comes not just from your brain but from your guts, balls, sinews, feelings, blood. AI has none of that
2/ Chesterton wrote in Heretics (1905) that if you want exciting art, you have to go to the ideologues. To the men who have actual convictions. Only a "doctrinaire" - someone with a doctrine, a POV, a set of values - can tell a story worth hearing. A data server has no doctrine
1/ Einstein fell seriously sick at 5. Bed-ridden. His father brought home a toy compass to entertain him. He was transfixed by the magnetic needle. It made him wonder—what were the "deeply hidden" forces controlling the needle...and the world? He spent his life chasing the answer
2/ The Wright brothers were gifted a toy helicopter when they were 7 and 11. They played with it until it broke, and then they built their own model. Years later they credited this toy for sparking off their life-long obsession with flight
Why do old buildings and weathered objects look so much more charming than the plastic creations of our time?
Because of a Japanese concept called Koko...
Thread:
1/ Charm is a hard thing to pin down - because it is not a thing but a spirit. The Japanese have thought about it for thousands of years. In the Zen philosophy of aesthetics, there is something called "Koko" - a certain weathered but attractive vibe that old objects develop
2/ Older things have history - which means they have stories, details, and finally, a MYSTERY, that a newly minted factory object simply cannot possess. Japanese art critic Yanagi Sōetsu put it well: "there is...a little something left unaccounted for"
• Never took a bath
• Never lost a fight
• Wrote one of Joe Rogan's all-time favorite books:
The Book of Five Rings (1645)
The book is 380 years old but its wisdom still holds up. A thread:
1/ Miyamoto Musashi was undefeated across 61 duels. An all-time record. He never married, never had children, and according to rumors, never combed his hair. He was a strange but profoundly wise man. Rogan says his book is "one of the most valuable things anyone has ever written"
2/ Have no favorite weapon. Musashi cautions fighters against over-reliance on one move or "special fondness for a particular weapon"
He writes: "Too much is the same as not enough"
Stay pragmatic, dont entertain "likes and dislikes," arm yourself with what you need for victory