Empires (Like the U.S.) Fall When Corruption Becomes Rampant

George Washington's picture




 

Widespread corruption destroys empires.

By way of example, corruption was one of the main causes of the collapse of the Roman Empire:

The Praetorian Guard—the emperor’s personal bodyguards—assassinated and installed new sovereigns at will, and once even auctioned the spot off to the highest bidder [and see this]. The political rot also extended to the Roman Senate, which failed to temper the excesses of the emperors due to its own widespread corruption and incompetence. As the situation worsened, civic pride waned and many Roman citizens lost trust in their leadership.

The Ottoman Empire started its decline when the sale of offices, bribery and corruption became widespreadIndeed:

Most historians point to "degenerate Sultans, incompetent Grand Viziers, debilitated and ill-equipped armies, corrupt officials, avaricious speculators, grasping enemies, and treacherous friends.

The Yuan Empire (led by the Mongols) also collapsed due to corruption:

The decline of the [the Yuan empire] was a result of a number of factors, these being incompetent and rivaling leaders, corruption, revolts, decadence, factional struggles, assassinations, external attacks, and disease.

Moreover:

Toward the end, corruption and the persecution became so severe that Muslim generals joined Han Chinese in rebelling against the Mongols.

Former history professor at the University of Alabama Larry Clayton notes:

The [Roman] republic evolved into an empire and the empire grew corrupt from its own tremendous power. There arose, like mushrooms after a long rain, self-indulgent vices driven by pride and power. An oft quoted observation noted:

 

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” wrote the English essayist and historian Lord Acton in 1887.

 

Long after the Roman Empire disappeared, other empires, notably the ones of France, England, and Spain began with the conquest and settlement of the New World. By the end of the nineteenth century, European nations had created economic, military and commercial empires across much of the globe.

 

Watching the rise and fall of empires is like watching a predictable ballet or opera, or even a Hollywood movie, all with distinct beginnings, middles, and ends, marked by triumph after triumph, crisis after crisis, and then the resolution of it all at the end. The curtain drops. The lights come on. The European empires lasted until the Second World War, and then crashed.

 

***

 

We come full circle to our question, “why do empires fall?” An empire falls when it becomes so self-important that it loses touch with the values that produced it. They begin to think they are destiny of the world.

 

There is a glowing sense of power that is irresistible, and those who get to the controls lose touch with the ancient virtues that gave their people their value and worth.

Indeed, an ancient Chinese principle holds that empires collapse when:

Corruption becomes rampant in the imperial court, and the empire begins to enter decline and instability.

(Indeed, Bastiat showed that corruption at the top leads to lawlessness among the people.)

As we've exhaustively documented, corruption is rampant in the the U.S. today.

In addition, widespread corruption leads to runaway inequality. Specifically, one of the biggest causes of runaway inequality is that the big banks are manipulating every market, and committing massive crimes.  Fraud disproportionately benefits the big banks, makes boom-bust cycles more severe, and otherwise harms the economy … all of which increase inequality and warp the market. These actions artificially redistribute wealth from honest, hard-working people to a handful of crooks.  And corrupt government officials have aided and abetted this.

Runaway inequality - in turn - leads to the fall of empires ... through unrest or revolution.

Indeed, inequality was .   In fact, inequality in America today is twice as bad as in ancient Rome , worse than it was in in Tsarist Russia, Gilded Age America, modern Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen, many banana republics in Latin America, and worse than experienced by slaves in 1774 colonial America.

Institutional corruption is also leading to a lack of trust ... which is collapsing the economy.

Indeed, the U.S.A. is following the pattern of ALL past empires as they declined:

  • They financialize their economy ... going from manufacturing to speculation
  • They incur very high levels of debt
  • They overreach in costly military adventures
  • They become arrogant and lazy
  • They collapse soon after their peak

No wonder the American Empire is starting to collapse ...

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Fri, 01/08/2016 - 09:52 | 7016693 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

well, the Roman Populus was a broad oligarchy, too, until it was forced to give the vote and half of the magistrate's seats to the Plebs because of a strike

and it maintained some parts of the character of an oligarcy, but later more based on finances then blood

problem is, if the international relations of a polity require a certain amount of skills, knowledge and capability to travel and meet foreigners and strike deals with them, there is always an "upper class" that can do that and one that can't

someone has to meet the owner of the oil you want to import, or stay home and tell the people that gas will be more costly, at the pump

again: the way a polity is structured is one thing. the exercise of empire, the "forging of broad alliances" a different one

a slave is owned. a serf is bound. either to a place or through contracts

in some cases, through culture, for example the "everybody ought to have a home" that might imply a "everybody ought to have a mortgage", particularly if the quality of your sexual life depends on "making the Joneses green with envy" or at least "keeping up with the Joneses"

a marriage is a (usually voluntary) contract, too, that binds you. a job, the same. in both cases, it's a question of quality of bonds

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:50 | 7018631 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Great stuff Ghordius, thanks for simplifying.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 08:59 | 7016410 Element
Element's picture

Thank you.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 07:56 | 7016140 Element
Element's picture

oh ... the morning GW schtick as arrived ... my ... Pprrruuuressssccshuasss!!!

Luckily george is not a fish, as he'd have to go out and eat another fish for breakfast, then spend all day cogitating dissonantly about that and the problem of eating dinner, and the inevitable self-loathing and nausea to follow. A stone fish sounds about right, some sort of toxic bottom feeder.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:52 | 7018638 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Element - You just went full retard. 

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 02:19 | 7020796 Element
Element's picture

You're talking about full retard level in a place like zh? Look around, full retard is what this place does the most, matriculation for retards.  :D  Georges is an adept mate, I only aspire to being able to mimic being that fully-retarded. He's a natural!  :D 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 05:08 | 7015900 modest_proposal
modest_proposal's picture

Although the thesis is sound overall, I take exception to many of your 'exhaustivly documented' instances of corruption. At a 'retail' level, the US is squeeky clean. You can't bribe a cop or a meter maid. You can't pay off the IRS agent to overlook your tax evasion. You don't get held up for a bribe by the customs official. Heck, the offices and positions that are used as 'spoils' are carefully controlled by law and labelled 'political appointees' - explicitly identiftying the people in government with a specific partisan agenda. The people of the US have _no idea_ what actual retail corruption looks like, and should stop whining about bureucrats screwing up or implementing bad policies they're tasked with.

The US is, on the other hand, rife with institutional and systemic corruption. Lobbying and campaign finance are explicit vehicles for legalized bribery and influence peddling. Legalized insider trading in the halls of Congress (they continue to fail to self-regulate) makes millionaires of new legislators - as a backdoor quid pro quo. The Federal Reserve is a creature of, by, and for the TBTF banks - and is independent until the very moment it reaches out and wags Treasury.

But let me emphasize - there is a huge difference between retail corruption and institutional corruption. We got the one, but not the other.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 19:07 | 7023461 blindman
blindman's picture

here an example of the "other" which we also got.
https://news.vice.com/article/a-juror-in-the-making-a-murderer-case-beli...

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 04:55 | 7020922 Global Observer
Global Observer's picture

But let me emphasize - there is a huge difference between retail corruption and institutional corruption. We got the one, but not the other.

Exactly. The latter, institutional corruption, means a collapse of the system will be a disaster since most depend on it to function and have built no alternatives, whereas the former, retail corruption, leads to a general distrust of the system and hence less dependent on it and even a collapse of the system isn't necessarily a disaster.

Precisely because cops cannot be bribed to ignore laws, that state can become as oppressive as it pleases. On the other hand, if the system that pays the cops and other emergency services collapses, all law and order will simply vanish.

Societies with little retail corruption and enormous systemic corruption will fall the hardest when the systems collapse under the weight of the corruption.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 09:44 | 7016644 MEAN BUSINESS
MEAN BUSINESS's picture

Grace Under Pressure 1984

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 09:50 | 7016677 modest_proposal
modest_proposal's picture

with a little post-production photo-shop.

glad the reference has traction.  :)

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 10:42 | 7017024 MEAN BUSINESS
MEAN BUSINESS's picture

I think it's nmewn's fav Rush album ; ) (En Em y wITH In) (part one of Fear). 

Distant Early Warning indeed; there's no swimming in the heavy water; and the mercury is rising; Another war - another waste land - And another lost generation...

----------------

"the crash of sticks against skins" - Robert Plant

Neil Peart's 2015 kick drum head : )

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 12:03 | 7017504 George Washington
George Washington's picture

Thanks for posting that vid ... I took a 10-minute detour: 

Still Rocking … 30 Years Later

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 15:07 | 7018392 MEAN BUSINESS
MEAN BUSINESS's picture

You're welcome George Washington, glad you enjoyed it that much! 

WOW:

Eugene Levy as Rockin' Mel Slurp circa 1975; June 2015 at Air Canada Center...

"WOW! WOW! Fantastic! That was a little bit of too much huh?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06JZFakM3uc

"because everyone KNoWs, three guys do not a rock band make"!

Since 1974

------------

nmewn is gonna kill me for threadjacking again ; )

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 12:49 | 7017725 centerline
centerline's picture

My favorite band of all time.  Just wish they did not jack the concert tickets into the statosphere for the last concert.  Even nosebleed was unaffordable... for the price should have had an accompanying sherpa and O2 bottles.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 17:10 | 7019097 RafterManFMJ
RafterManFMJ's picture

Saw them last tour, and read an article that they may never tour again. That may have been it. I hope not!

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 14:58 | 7018355 MEAN BUSINESS
MEAN BUSINESS's picture

LOL! All the sherpas were already contracted out for 2015 Tragically Hip tour and the O2 bottles couldn't be found on this continent at any price... and that was before the new two-child policy ; )

Free market bitchez!

I've enjoyed my crappy seats since 1979 so I bought 15 more of them for the family and friends and two platinums for my 83yo Dad. spanned five generations!

and please, don't get me going on that stratosphere stuff ; )

 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 05:28 | 7015913 Aquarius
Aquarius's picture

OK

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43878.htm Allow me to add: If it wasn't for "corruption" Humanity would not exist. But then, corruption is what? Disobeying the "Law"? These "Laws" put in place by ignorant politicians with their own agenda of Subjectivity aka to survive and thrive?

No. Human or proto-human behaviours are variable and subject to Circumstances that constantly change. The Behaviours of Collectives that are made up of the proto-human have their own set of behaviours and these rout out to the full spectrum of Perversion: An intenstity; there are plenty of examples if one waqnts to look and see; most don't. Sorry to say, the USA has it all, but are not alone; just the most powerful, a state that is weakening rapidly. "Government" is the USA is clearly a menagerie of competing Power Cults all with their own agenda but what is very clear is that   the Banking System is harvesting the Humanity aided and abetted by the "economist". Energy always seeks equilibrium, and we are set to be taught the definition of equilibrium; at least the route to it. Ho hum

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:17 | 7017235 sapioplex
sapioplex's picture

FWIW, I define corruption as self interest achieved through deceit.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 14:16 | 7018095 tenpanhandle
tenpanhandle's picture

Retail corruption does not exist?  The very fact that (un)civil servants make more income than their masters, the people, is a bit of corruption that you don't consider.  As well, the people (FSA) are the one's being bribed at the street level to keep the scum in power. If that is not corruption, then what is?  Corrupt cops, county employees, building inspectors and the list goes on and on, roam the country plying their corrupt adgendas and reaping power and monatary rewards.  Most every lowly govt employee who has any contact with the people are all little dicktators glorying in their situational power over the public.  When the masters (public) have to grovel before the servants than corruption has reached its zenith.  We are there and you miss the big point.  Squeaky clean... my ass.

 

Fuck all that.  The corruption goes right down to the street leval in all branches of the .gov.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 03:12 | 7020848 PT
PT's picture

When the average cop earns more than the average worker, resentment begins.

When the average cop cannot afford to feed, clothe and house his wife and family, ... lets just say that the honest, good cops take on second jobs, or they quit and find a better paying job with which to feed, clothe and house their wife and family ... Now, hmmmmm, who gets left behind?

When everyone is starving / jobless, and afraid of reds / I mean terrorrists under their beds, ... if you see something, say something ... and why shouldn't you be rewarded for helping the state "find" the latest boogeyman, and protected from that boogeyman taking revenge ... oh shit!  Now we have paid informers and secret police ...

See how easy this is?  Maths is fun!  The only reason it makes your head hurt is because someone else prefers you to stay stupid.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 18:02 | 7019284 August
August's picture

Are you Australian?

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:29 | 7019597 tenpanhandle
tenpanhandle's picture

Depends on who is asking.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 04:54 | 7015839 Aquarius
Aquarius's picture

Indeed, lack of Trust, an innate attribute of Humanity, keeps Humananity from the final annihilation. (Get the message?)

Real "economics" are the behaviours of Humanity comprising in majority the proto-human and the small minority of the Human.

The proto-Humans are unorganized, gullible and ignorant and hence the Capital of the Organized Power Cults (aka governments, bankers, politicians, economists, political Parties aka gangs) that act through Collectives, which are life form but not human life and accordingly behave differently.

The Power Cults need the People for the people represent Capital which the Power Cults feed upon. Power needs People but the Human Being do not need government aka Power Cults.

Fear and Cowardice define Humanity today; such is the proto-human, Capital and fodder for the Power Cults, and their behaviours fill the full spectrum of perversity. The Power Cults comprise those organized proto-Humans.

All is as it should be, while all that needs to said, has been said.

Empires fall. The USA has already fallen.

"Say goodnight, Dick. - Good Night Dick."

Denial is pepetual masturbation.

Ho hum

 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 11:43 | 7017393 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

I remember my college history professor telling us that we were studying history so we could watch everybody else repeat it. Sigh........

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 02:53 | 7015798 KennyW
KennyW's picture

When the light of Truth is extinguished darkness follows.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:31 | 7019604 Buck Johnson
Buck Johnson's picture

When the US implodes, it won't be the same ever again.  In fact we won't be one nation but a continent of regions that are their own country like europe. 

 

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 22:33 | 7024114 Freddie
Freddie's picture

The USA is totally corrupt - top to bottom.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 12:10 | 7017536 Save_America1st
Save_America1st's picture

that giant sucking sound will be lobbyists bearing "gifts" to the corrupt scumbags they service...because this guy wants to make it legal!

 

Mo. bill defines sex between lobbyists, lawmakers as 'gifts'


http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/08/mo-bill-defines-sex-between-lobbyists-law...

 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 17:08 | 7019085 RafterManFMJ
RafterManFMJ's picture

I wonder how you wrap that? Wax paper?

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