Hi everyone! I would apologize for my intermittent hiatus but I forewarned all my trustee listeners that I moved across like 6 states and my lovely internet pal Nikki reminded me I don’t need to apologize for things that warrant no apology. I also don’t need to constantly be available, publicly, especially when nobody is paying me to be.
Some big news:
- I moved to Atlanta! Still no idea what I’m doing, and I don’t have a job yet, but it DID feel like “home”.
- I am still, justifiably, an idiot. In reference to Strider, specifically. This will be covered in a separate episode when I dive into The Hunger Games love triangle & Katniss’ persona specifically.
- I got a request from a super cool gal to cover HPV specifically, and STD’s in general. This made my epidemiology heart SO happy, because I have an entire project on HPV vaccination and especially the need to target men for sexual health campaigns from grad school. I’ll be digging that out and getting to work on it STAT. Feel free to email or message me on my instagram @zedagrace if you have any (anonymous) stories you want me to include.
So for today’s episode of “how much existential dread in the pathetic lack of leadership in the USA can I convey in roughly an hour”, we’re gonna use the trilogy of “The Hunger Games”, coupled with the collapse of the Roman empire.
I was a teenager when these books came out, and like many fellow overachievers who didn’t need any persuasion to scavenge their summer reading lists, or lived in a mental fantasy world inside their brains because reality bites, I ravaged up the wonderful fictional content as entertainment, and nothing more. A cool story. A creepy dystopia.
So you can imagine my dismay when I re-read these books recently, particularly in light of a pandemic and the insurrection on January 6th, and was confronted with a rather harsh reality of the USA.
Maybe it’s the cynical nature of adulthood, but re-reading these at 28, with a public health background was, honestly, terrifying.
If you’ve only watched the movies, I highly recommend getting ahold of the audiobooks or actual literature. The movies are very warped and, like most, leave out a few incredibly key aspects. Or you can just listen to me explain them. You won’t need to have read them to enjoy this piece, though I’m sure it would help. Let’s begin.
The History of Panem (aka the USA’s future)
The Hunger Games is set in a nearly post-apocalyptic North America, called “Panem”. “Disasters, drought, storms, fires, encroaching seas that swallowed up most of the land, the brutal war for the little sustenance that remained” is the precedent for how Panem emerged a “shining capitol, ringed by 13 districts” and tasked with bringing “peace and prosperity onto its citizens”.
Or in other words, climate change happened.
In California alone, in 2020 over 4 million acres of land burnt, and if that’s not enough to draw sympathy, over 10,000 structures were damaged or destroyed. (I know property damage matters a lot more to SOME people, over here.)
Arizona has been in a megadrought for 22 years, apparently, and those statistics from 2021 alone have indicated this to be the “new baseline”. (But who listens to scientists?) Not to mention the catastrophic flooding in Germany. But again, US citizens only align themselves with ethnocentric ideas for the most part, as it is ingrained in our public education framework and individualist mentality. (Greta Thunberg is just socialist propaganda, after all…)
And yes, for those of you who keep up with the rest of my blog, I did ask my German love affair if him and his family were okay. They ARE quite close to the flooding but are luckily all accounted for and fine.
Do we really need to address how storms are just accepted as the norm–with disaster preparations only imperative when they’re at the scale of Hurricane Katrina devastation? The recent flooding in NYC wasn’t even associated with Elsa, apparently.
“Encroaching seas that swallow up the land”… or just shift the foundations to topple infrastructure whose management insufficiently values capital ($$$) over human life. Also, Florida WILL be underwater someday, and probably a lot sooner than the Jonas Brothers predicted in Year 3000.
“The brutal war for the little sustenance that remained” really emphasizes the impending civil war 2.0. US propaganda, stemming from the 1950’s and 60’s, the “golden age of consumerism” emphasized the marketability of sophistication. The competition amongst the social classes to create a never-ending facade that people are happy because they have “enough”, arguably more than enough, some VASTLY more than any one person or family could ever need in their lives. And like dragons, sit upon their hoards, desperately protecting their lair of acquisitions and accomplishments lest someone gets it into their mind that they can, and should, share. Competition is flaunted in US culture. Revered. Can’t risk someone calling you lazy, or worse, unproductive, just for living or enjoying your life. The “rat race” of society that commandeered mentality so you think others with less just simply must not have worked as hard, so as not to undermine your desperate necessity to have worth. Keeping everyone so focused on “keeping up with the Joneses” that they never stop to question whether they even respect the Joneses. It’s all a distraction.
The Capitol reigned supreme. Uniting itself, a land of wealth, prosperity, and luxury, with its 13 districts. Each district specialized in some industry.
District 1- luxury items. District 2- weapons, masonry, and supplying the law enforcement, or “Peacekeepers”. District 3-technology. 4-Fishing. 5-Power, Electricity. 6-Transportation. 7-Lumber. 8-Textiles. 9-Grain. 10-Livestock. 11-Agriculture. 12-Coal mining, the protagonist, Katniss’ home, in the Appalachian region, much like how the USA’s history in West Virginia is overlapping. 13-Nuclear Technology. It’s a bit eerie that it’s situated in the same region Harvard and MIT are. Suzanne Collins, the author, certainly did her research. Between District 10 and 11, she certainly pinpointed “the South”, as well.
Map via https://screenrant.com/hunger-games-districts-explained/
The Capitol organized the collaboration of the districts in order to ensure prosperity for “all”, but withholding actual prosperity amongst the wealthiest–its own citizens. (Anything else would be accused of being socialism…I’m just guessing.)
Seems important to compare that a Georgetown study showed it’s better to be born rich than smart in the USA. You have a higher likelihood of success simply based on where you are born and what family, or region, you are born into. Your zip code literally determines your opportunities, in many ways.
The Dark Days, the uprising against the all-mighty Capitol, ended with 12 of the districts defeated by the Capitol’s superior military strength, and the 13th, where the rebellion is said to have started, supposedly obliterated. Communication between the districts was controlled, coordinated by the Capitol. The powerful government with its pristine weaponry had a distinct advantage over the actual workers, the source of its power.
The teachings in public education are framed to be central to necessity, to serve the Capitol’s agenda. Education in the USA is similar. We emphasize specialization to such a degree that even our world renowned scientists and researchers lack the influence of public appeal, because they’ve been kept so busy trying to “make something” of their careers, that they simply don’t have the time or energy to involve themselves in mass appeal, or education, even. That, or their research is behind a paywall and largely inaccessible to most. Understanding the intricacies of knowledge has been kept so elitist and self contained that the general public often lacks any basic level for it. We saw this with coronavirus and the anti vaccination movement in general. Universities are better, as they typically require leading instruction as a pillar in employment, though less than 40% of US citizens even go to college. Which means the majority of formal education ends at age 18 for the ~56.4 million students within the education system.
Katniss also mentions how her school teaches them about history in reference to, almost exclusively, coal.
Not an unbiased assessment or history, a framing of education meant to serve one purpose: subservience and acceptance of the norm as dictated by the Capitol.
(Something we should be weary of in relation to Ron DeSantis and the idea that we shouldn’t teach Critical Race theory and should instead perpetuate the idea that a country founded on enslaving others, eugenics, and white supremacy is “noble” or “less dangerous” for our future.)
“I know there must be more than they’re telling us, an actual account of what happened during the rebellion. But I don’t spend much time thinking about it. Whatever the truth is, I don’t see how it will help me get food on the table.”
Thus, the reality of low and middle classes of US citizens. Kept in cycles of productivity, barely having the time to even enjoy life, and definitely not providing the time to question its purpose, while the wealthiest are able to buy legislation to keep the abysmal status quo. Veiling the “puritan work ethic” as humanity’s purpose–so you feel selfish to even question not wanting to work to live. Or at least being able to comfortably afford existing. Or to be able to spend time with your families. The means of production, the average citizen, kept in racist warfare against one another, so they can keep people distracted from the reality of greed at the top of the “trickle down economics” delusion.
In Katniss’ case, maybe thinking about it would have been a waste, anyways. She was just a poor girl from District 12. Having to break the law regularly just to keep her family from starving could portray her as a criminal, once it no longer served the purposes of the Peacekeepers local to her district. She even mentions how if she were older when her father had died, she might’ve lined up at the peacekeeper’s doors, hoping to exchange sexual favors for a few meager coins as a way to not starve. Something rather eerie when you consider that ~34 states in the USA don’t bar law enforcement from engaging in sexual relations with detainees.
It’s hard to want to consider things you feel you have no control over. The mind protects you, anyways, and often accepts it.
The Capitol was able to command control over the actual source of power–its working class citizens–by withholding and limiting communication, holistic education, and implementing cultures of indoctrinated beliefs that you shouldn’t question out of “faith”.
The Capitol was “built in a place called the Rockies”. A geographical advantage that “was a major factor in the districts losing the war…since the rebels had to scale the mountains, they were easy targets for the Capitol’s air forces.”
Geographical advantages play a huge role in warfare. Sun Tzu in The Art of War references that “not knowing the form of mountains and forests, defiles and gorges, marshes and swamps, one cannot move the army. Not employing local guides, one cannot take advantage of the ground.” The USA learned that, harshly, in Vietnam. There’s also the common sentiment never to get into a land war in Asia. Infrastructure is easy to bomb, to dismantle, to reduce to ashes. Though it is viewed as less humane. More tragic. Terrain is less so, and the natural environments may offer a canopy of protection to those who understand it. (Why else would we have deployed Agent Orange to the extent that we did.)
In the US, people also typically have not been taught to consider the implications of changing the natural, physical landscape, if it serves a purpose deemed “greater” for them. In the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy, “Catching Fire”, Katniss says, “I remember District 8, an ugly urban place stinking of industrial fumes, the people housed in run-down tenements. Barely a blade of grass in sight. No opportunity, ever, to learn the ways of nature.” 83% of the US population lives in cities and urban areas. Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” is exclaimed by my navy career step dad as “liberal propaganda” and “DDT never hurt the eagles”. Big yikes. We label pipeline protestors, mainly Native Americans, as disruptive, for valuing the Earth over monetary, corporate gain.
Pocahontas was right. Reminiscing in the melancholy of “Colors of the Wind”, “you think you own whatever land you land on / the Earth is just a dead thing you can claim.” How is it that we’ve reached a point where we even value human life, so little, let alone “every rock and tree and creature”.
Finally, the aftermath. The Treaty of Treason, new laws to “guarantee peace”, set into place “The Hunger Games” as punishment for the uprising. As is decreed, one girl and boy from each of the districts will be collected yearly, imprisoned in an arena designed, crafted, and built, “for the love of the sport”, and forced to fight to the death against the other children in a televised affair.
“The arenas are historic sites, preserved after the games. Popular destinations for Capitol residents to visit, to vacation. Go for a month, rewatch the Games, tour the catacombs, visit the sites where the deaths took place. You can even take part in the reenactments.”
How is this any different from Gettysburg? The slave plantations in the south that white people now use as wedding venues? The Confederacy reenactments that are somehow framed as NOBLE that wealthy slave owners managed to convince white people to die so that black people wouldn’t “take their jobs” instead of the reality that those individuals just wouldn’t have such extravagant wealth? Gross.
The 74th Hunger Games (14:20)
The novel opens on the day of the reaping of the 74th Hunger Games.
Katniss narrates that “taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch–this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how we are totally at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion.”
In order to get tributes, or victims, for the Capitol, they hold this “reaping”. “The reaping is a good opportunity for the Capitol to keep tabs on the population as well”, as it means shuffling the general population into the town square, separating eligible children into roped off areas, much like Times Square in New York City on New Years, or pigs to the slaughter, and then choosing a name from a bingo-hall style orb with a collection of names for those ages 12-18. At each birthday, beginning with age 12, your name is entered once. If you are “poor and starving as [Katniss’ family was]”, beginning at age 12, you can sign your name up for “tesserae”, or food stamps. If you and your family are in need, signing up for this each year means increased entries into the reaping, and thus an increased chance of being chosen for the “glory” of being chosen for the games, as entries are cumulative.
So in Katniss’ case, whose father was killed in a mine explosion a few years prior, her fate as a child was essentially sealed. Her family needed the support, through the tragedy, and the only social programs that existed were not given without expectation or psychological dread. She volunteered for the games long before her little sister’s name was tragically called during the 74th reaping, by signing up for tesserae in the desperate bid to keep her family alive, because “starvations not an uncommon fate in district 12. Who hasn’t seen the victims? Older people who can’t work. Children from a family with too many to feed. Those injured in mines.” In the USA, nearly 11.9 million children currently live in poverty. In the “richest” country in the world. The parallels are uncomfortable.
What kind of horrific government would force children to fight for their district’s glory, though, just for the entertainment and pursuits of the wealthiest? Or condemn them to this punishment because of the decisions made decades prior, by people completely unrelated to them?
Surely not a government who has amassed itself in generations of warfare in the middle east, largely for the desires of capitalist and colonialist exploitation, flaunting “democracy” while our own is under attack and lacks progressive reform. It’s honestly amusing that following the 1958 Iraqi army’s overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy, a pro-Western government, President Eisenhower was so worried about Egypt’s President Nasser, who held Arab sentiment as being anti-colonialist and opposed Western imperialism (and was suspected to collude with the Soviets). Gotta love the US propaganda machine that convinces US citizens that ANTI COLONIALIST SENTIMENT ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT IS A “BAD” THING. HOW THE FUCK ELSE WOULD THOSE AREAS FEEL?!
Or one that thinks settling it through war, instead of education and collaboration, is the answer. Also IRONIC coming from a country with such anti-Soviet and now-Russian sentiment, who had 4 recent years of a president backed by a Russian dictator and cyberwarfare and election meddling BY RUSSIANS, who have done virtually nothing to address it and still let that president try to rally support from the uneducated peasants who follow him. (Side note: There have been 4-5 Russian accounts lurking on my instagram and I don’t know how to feel about it, but I’m pretty sure Russia has bigger fish to fry than a rando social media gal.)
Not to mention the shit show that was George W. Bush’s involvement in ignoring intelligence regarding Iraq’s lack of involvement with 9/11, diverting resources from the actual fight against terrorism, just to invade in 2003, likely due to the necessity to win public sentiment for his upcoming re-election.
Why have we just accepted widespread negligence in political office?
Why is our famous “democracy” so warped with gerrymandering, lack of representation, lack of equality and social support, voter suppression, and imprisonment that we’ve convinced people we have such “freedoms” to celebrate on July 4th, a holiday when LITERALLY NOT EVERY US CITIZEN WAS EVEN ABLE TO EXIST FREELY. WE AREN’T EVEN IN THE TOP 15 OF THE WORLD LIBERTY INDEX.
How the FUCK are US citizen’s so against IMPROVEMENTS. So convinced they should settle for mediocrity, but if it’s veiled in gold medals for athletic competitions, we’re somehow “the best”!
What kind of horrifically corrupt government would sequester wealth in such a way that the wealthiest are able to convince themselves that victory, the “dream”, means a “life of ease back home, and their district will be showered with prizes, largely consisting of food”, so basically being able to live more comfortably and eat, for however long, instead of improved conditions for all?
Particularly when that “victory” only comes at the death and demise of others?
A desperation of survival?
Surely not a government whose citizens include billionaires in charge of corporations that pay absolutely no tax, while also being one of the top employers of those receiving SNAP (food stamp) benefits in at least 5 states (and that’s just Amazon–not even factoring in Walmart or McDonald’s). Why is it even possible for corporations that use numerous roads, airlines, and communities, to contribute zero responsibility to federally funded projects to improve those areas and yet their workers must utilize taxpayer, or the general working class’ money to be able to afford to live? Surely not a government using taxpayer money to fund this billionaire’s space travel? What a fucking joke.
What kind of horribly corrupt government enmeshes itself in cycles of warfare in general, all to sacrifice its children fighting against one another because they’re all just trying to represent their districts? How barbaric.
Even the “careers”, tributes from District 1 and 2, those who are raised indoctrinated with the belief of bringing home “glory”, are roughly 18 year olds who eagerly volunteer for the ability to partake in the “festivities”, the “sport”, arranged by the Capitol to “pit every district against one another”. The most dangerous game.
In the USA, for 2019, 79% of Army recruits had a family member who served (Per the NY Times). 30% had that family member be a parent. Odd, given that less than 1% of the total population serves in a military with as globally wide of a base as ours does.
But criticism of the necessity for this warfare, or bloodshed, would threaten the values some of these careers have built their lives around. The hope THEY clung to at their weakest moments. Criticism of the Capitol, and what it commanded those victors to do in the games, is often felt as personal criticism of those individuals who seemingly willingly carried out the deeds entrusted to them by creating the environment for them to do so. In “Mockingjay”, the third book, the significance of Katniss extending the pardon to Enobaria, a district 2 tribute, is not lost on me.
Growing up training on military bases, I was around familial involvement with the military far more than the average US citizen. It’s actually been rather difficult to find my place in this world, because of how often I’ve existed in the gaps of communities (which I now think is exactly my place in the world). Had I been a male, I have no doubt that I would’ve been more inclined to take up my grandfather’s West Point direction, and likely would have thrived–never questioning the way of the world because it would have been built for me and nobody would’ve thought twice on whether or not I was capable of balancing so many things–because men have always been able to, without the pressure of an impending timeline, and there were enough representative figures flaunted in history to seem relevant.
So in a country with pathetic worker’s rights, would people be less inclined to enroll in the military if 30 vacation days a year, life insurance, and comprehensive healthcare was common in other career paths? If (public) education wasn’t so drastically expensive, making it often inaccessible, would the motivation for tuition benefits be less admirable? Why is it that “socialism” is seen as a negative within the current Republican party–a party that supposedly also backs military service, law enforcement, and “saving the children”–even though the military functions very similar to socialism? Why must “public service” be associated almost exclusively with overseas defense, yet those who remain in the communities back home and facilitate a home worthy of protecting often aren’t allowed the same assistance? How is this logical?
Current military enrollment is concentrated heavily in the South, transitioning from relatively equal state distribution prior to the draft for the Vietnam War in 1973. It is also in part due to the relevance of military complexes, as well as coinciding with some of the lowest rates of education and highest rates of income inequality.
(Via Thrillist)
Gini coefficient of income inequality (Via Wikipedia. Bite me)
Map of US military bases:
Top counties for army recruitment:
Exposure of familial service in a 2018 report by the Institute for Defense Analyses was a heavy predictor for enlistment rates, much like how the careers in the Hunger Games, the volunteers, “have been fed and trained throughout their lives for this moment”, there are less inclined to propel themselves into service, the games, a symbol of “unity”, without that indoctrination.
Is our really that different, even, from the games? We send people, commonly 18 year olds eager to enlist, overseas into makeshift arenas, tactical geological placements, tasked with fighting proclaimed “terrorists” (often children carrying weapons we sold them a decade ago) who are also told they have to fight to the death in order to protect their districts and embrace hope of eventual peace. Or, at least, rule by their own citizens.
With the reality that a broad gap has been created between military-civilian divide, impacting the ability to sustain the force and resonate positive public sentiment, how does the US, with our historic military strength, move forward?
Looking into a progressive future, the US military industrial complex has flaunted propaganda of “bringing democracy” to other countries. Given the events of January 6th, and the fact that our own democracy, a system meant to be controlled and influenced by a majority of its members, lacks adequate representation year after year, has rampant voter suppression, allows minority control through legislative technicalities and gerrymandering. A system which has defunded public education and made the idea of learning so despicable and elitist, associated with their own feelings of failure or inadequacy, to those who desperately need it. Katniss herself explains how “stupid people are dangerous”, yet the militia of citizens sparked by the president of the United States at the time claimed in court they “were not being violent” and they “were just trying to overthrow democracy”.
What are we actually “gifting” upon the world?
If those “victors” are “our strongest. The ones who survived the arena and slipped the noose of poverty that strangles the rest of us. They, or should I say we, are the very embodiment of hope where there is no hope.” Must we condemn them to returning home, tasking their remaining days of supposed peace–intermittently marked by the horrors of PTSD for what they saw and became capable of–spending their days spreading their winnings within their own community, piecing themselves together through almost entirely self motivation, instead of facilitating an end goal of lowered organized violence? Less poverty? General equality? Community, country, pride? Actually united.
The only logical and patriotic way to move forward is, ultimately, holistic analysis of the flaws in our own country and working towards bettering it. We cannot continue a facade of bringing the “gift” of democracy onto the world when the reality of our own country is so pathetic. When our own infrastructure is underdeveloped and inadequate. When the priority of money has surpassed and ignored the value of human life for a handful of those who are overcompensating for the egos of their own. When our cultural ambivalence towards reducing human life to ashes overseas is so widely accepted, but the outrage to those who reduce it within our own borders is a “tragedy” that doesn’t encompass productive reform to address why it is so frequent and “news” networks are allowed to purposefully misrepresent reality in order to keep the working classes entrenched in an exchange of racist warfare against each other.
Given the state of mental health in the USA, with suicidal ideation among adults on the rise, worsening youth mental health (aka: our future generations), and less than 30% of youths or adults receiving adequate mental health treatment, we are at a public health crises that desperately needs to be rectified, and “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps” is simply not the way to go. In a for-profit healthcare system, slapping the band aid of profitable and patented medications only treats the symptoms of biochemical inefficiency. It is simply immoral to acknowledge the widespread reality of our societal culture, and instead of addressing the REASONS for worsening anxiety and depression, the solution has thus far to develop more antidepressants instead of requiring transitioning to a 4 day work week, a living wage, universal healthcare, universal basic income, emphasizing sustainability and creating a world where humans have hope, instead of despair. Western medicine is great, for a lot of reasons, but the ignorance towards improving the cause versus providing a treatment for the result is an increasingly large divide.
The USA has historically been involved in rebuilding the countries it has engaged in warfare with. After Japan’s defeat in WWII, “General Douglas A. MacArthur enacted widespread military, political, economic, and social reforms”, including reducing the power of rich landowners, breaking up business conglomerates, and drafting a new constitution with greater rights and privileges for women, with medical treatment provided via universal healthcare. Germany was rebuilt as well, under the Marshall Plan, or the “European Recovery Program”, via Secretary of State George C. Marshall. This plan involved infrastructure revitalization and emphasized direction “against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos”. Germany currently has a universal multi-payer health care system and ranks 8th in the world for quality of life index. Japan ranks 16th. The US ranks 17th. For the World liberty index, those precious “freedoms” we flaunt so desperately, Germany ranks 9th, Japan 11th, and the USA is 17th.
The GOP is even currently advocating for the safety of Cubans, protesting the 62-year communist regime. Are they aware that Cubans are protesting against deteriorating living conditions? Lack of basic goods and services, including access to medical attention and proper coronavirus response? This can’t be the same GOP facilitating coronavirus spread with misinformation, opposing universal health care, a living wage, and access to affordable housing in it’s own country–can it?
Why and how is it reasonable that we implement and endorse beneficial policies everywhere else except our own land? What the fuck is wrong with our political system?
The collapse of the Roman Empire (30:16)
While highlighting the similarities in Panem to the current state of the USA, Wade also reminded me of the comparisons to the collapse of the Roman Empire. A legendary military stronghold and empire, there were a number of contributions to its downfall, but I’ll highlight the most eerie.
Rome’s economy, under attack externally, also crumbled due to severe financial crises resulting from “constant wars and overspending” and “inflation widening the gap between the rich and poor.”
Much like how churches, and their affiliated members (especially my ex-boyfriend’s family in Gainesville, Georgia), evade taxation through creation of ridiculous and imaginary religious write-offs, “many members of the wealthy classes had even fled to the countryside and set up independent fiefdoms”.
Coupled with a labor deficit, dependent on “slaves to till its fields and work as craftsmen” and a secondary influx of military conquests, Rome soon succumbed to its economy faltering.
Currently, the USA has over 10 million people unemployed, yet won’t address a living wage or make universal healthcare reduce the burden on small businesses. It won’t tax the churches, and allows them to consolidate wealth and self govern, even with rampant pedophilia and abuse hidden within its structures. The top 1% of families in the USA hold ~40% of all wealth. The bottom 90% hold less than 25%.
2020 US military expenditure reached over $778 billion, but the government won’t help its own citizens.
In Rome, when Emperor Diocletian divided the empire into two halves–the Western (Milan) and Eastern (Byzantium / Constantinople), the two gradually drifted apart, “failing to adequately work together to combat outside threats, … squabbling over resources and military aid.” When the Western structure disintegrated in the 5th century, the Eastern remained prosperous for approximately 1000 years, until the 1400s and the Ottoman Empire.
Is this that much different from the divide between conservative and liberal politics? Why is it that GOP backed states are funneling resources into inadequate social programs and consistently allowed to enact inept policy, ignoring the social and economic success of those in areas with better education historically (i.e. more liberal)? Why is it that some of the most advanced technological innovations–designed and developed from scientists with heavily liberal educations–are concentrated in areas with such conservative social policies, even those muttering rumors of secession, led and governed by those who were implicated and involved in attempting to overthrow democracy–who are somehow still allowed to walk freely and even vote on the investigation decisions and refuse to work together to create a progressively healthier country?
The military upkeep of the Roman empire resulted in slowing technological advancement, as well as crumbling civil infrastructure.
The USA can’t even get high speed rails.
We have failed to require corporate adaptation to renewable and green energy sources.
We divert intelligence into cycles of arbitrary legislation for basic human rights, and religious affiliation is more important than endorsing science for political nomination.
Rome also had a series of “ineffective and inconsistent leadership”. Civil War was rampant, political affiliations were “auctioned off to the highest bidder”, and even its senate “failed to temper the excesses of the emperors due to its own widespread corruption and incompetence”. “Civic pride waned and many Roman citizens lost trust in their leadership.”
Our winning president’s internet campaign slogan was literally “Settle for Biden”.
The decline of Rome coincided with the spread of Christianity, a “new faith [which] helped contribute to the empire’s fall”. “Glory of the state” had shifted focus away, and “onto a sole deity. Meanwhile, popes and other church leaders took an increased role in political affairs, further complicating governance.”
There has only been one openly atheist congressional political figure. (California Democrat Pete Stark, who only admitted to being atheist after 3 decades of public service.) In the 117th Congress, 384 are Christian. 0.2%, aka ONE PERSON, are unaffiliated, 3% refused to answer, 6% are Jewish, and only 10 representatives compromise any other religion.
Rome’s military, once an envy of the ancient world for most of the empire’s history, ultimately crumbled.
The Hunger Games might be “fictional”, but it is composed of eerily dystopian parallels.
True patriotism, and love for one’s country, does not mean ignoring its weaknesses and allowing it to fall into disrepair.
History is doomed to repeat itself, lest we learn from it.
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SOURCES:
https://www.weather.gov/psr/drought_Jun2021
https://new.azwater.gov/drought/drought-status
https://www.fire.ca.gov/stats-events/
https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disaster/2020-california-wildfires/
https://www.historycrunch.com/history-of-consumerism.html#/
https://www.childrensdefense.org/policy/resources/soac-2020-child-poverty/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/us/military-enlistment.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-on-food-stamps-2018-8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_World_Liberty_Index
https://www.history.com/news/8-reasons-why-rome-fell
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/most-educated-states-in-us-mapped
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Gini_coefficient
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/03/politics/capitol-riot-plea-deals/index.html
https://mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/international-health-policy-center/countries/japan
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/japan-reconstruction
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7013e2.htm
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/germany-s-health-care-system-model-u-s-n1024491
https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings_by_country.jsp
https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index/2020
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cuba-protests-whats-happening-11626112390
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/marshall-plan-1
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/19/how-many-americans-unemployed/
https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2021/world-military-spending-rises-almost-2-trillion-2020
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_affiliation_in_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives
https://www.history.com/news/8-reasons-why-rome-fell
https://www.statista.com/statistics/269967/urbanization-in-the-united-states/