"You can hear the gods laughing..."

My little village in Southern France is only 90 minutes from the Mediterranean coast line. There, one fascinating sight is the Via Domitia, the Roman road that was built in 118 BC to connect Rome to the Provence and the colonies in Spain, and which still stands today.

Being there is a humbling experience, to say the least, as the crushing weight of history comes rushing all at once, all two thousand years of it, and one's thoughts are inevitably drawn to reflect on the fall of mighty empires which thought themselves eternal.

...more below fold...

Inevitably, I'm reminded of Emperor Commodus who, in the somewhat cheesy The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) (a guilty sin!), declares: "If you listen very carefully, you can hear the gods laughing!"

Our dying empire, like Rome, is increasingly corrupt, imperialistic, opportunistic and unprincipled. The rot at the core is carefully hidden by a facade of naked power and aggression. In fact, more and more is spent on projecting power, to the detriment of strengthening the Republic.

Our ideals have been reduced to lies and propaganda. Our ruling classes are plundering selfishly and merciless in eliminating dissent. They feel no loyalty to the Nation as they prepare to leave it, just as the wealthy Romans once left Rome for Constantinople.

Even sadder is the state of our people: all to easily appeased with fun and games, they have been robbed of their wealth, their education, their health, their spirit. There is no empathy there, no concern for democracy or public discourse, just mindless noise.

Those who once trod the Via Domitia could not conceive of a world without Rome. Yet today, grass grows between its stones, and tourists take hesitant steps on it, somewhat unsure of how they should feel.

In a prescient article, America in the Time of Empire, Chris Hedges speaks of the "twilight" of our empire.  Paradoxically, nowhere is this more evident than when one stands on the Via Domitia.

One could almost hear the gods laughing.

•  hear them i do

  tip jar?

  by cognitive dissonance on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 08:53:11 AM PDT

•  Belated tip amphora :-)

  by Lupin on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 08:56:50 AM PDT

  •  I feel the same way

    I am just about completed reading Collen McCullough's 6 books on Rome (covers the times of Gaius Marius, Sulla and Caesar) and have been having very similar thoughts.

    by SarahLee on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 10:57:28 AM PDT

  •  Your amphora comment

    reminds me: Years ago, in the Balearics, talking to an archeologist, he described the many, many amphorae still being found and yet to be found as "the Coke bottles" of their time, so common were they.

    More elegant in design, however, and more readily decomposed than tin and plastic forever in the landscape.

    Nice diary, thanks.

    by Mnemosyne on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 03:53:46 PM PDT

•  I hear you Lupin, but I have to take issue with

  the Roman comparison. Sure, the rot part is there, but none of the original glory, the noble germ at the heart of Rome before empire, unless you call greed and hypocrisy noble.

  I'd take the Seleucids for $500 for comparison purposes, especially the overextended part and the "counterproductively engaged in a series of stupid wars of greed" part.

  by redstar on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 09:04:40 AM PDT

  •  Wouldn't you consider the American...

    ...Constitution and the Founding Fathers' ideals far more glorious and noble than those of the early Roman Republic?

    I don't mean to whitewash America's role in the second half of the 20th century, but we opposed and defeated an ideology and power than were far worse than any of our actions.

    by Lupin on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 09:14:49 AM PDT

    •  Actually, I'm not particularly enamored of that

      document, given that there was a more visionary, far-reaching, and egalitarian document which gave voice to the spirit of human rights and humann gain at the times.

      The US Constitution is a supremely conservative document, damn near impossible to reform, and quite limited in scope when it comes right down to it. It's part of the reason why the US is the mess it has become politically speaking imho.

      As for the ideals, I suppose that for their time they were advanced, though again, in comparison to the spirit of the times, pretty bourgeois.

      by redstar on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 09:23:41 AM PDT

      •  An interesting perspective

        I kinda thought the parties themselves - dems/repubs were responsible for the inability to reform anything.  Since we are split into two camps immediately, other perspectives (such as yours) get lost.  I also believe we are hopelessly afraid to change.  We couldn't even get some of the voter finance/clean campaigns passed in the states.  So we are still locked out of the process if we don't have a mill or so to put in the collection plate of our rep.

        by glitterscale on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 09:57:53 AM PDT

    •  In creating this country

      we opposed and defeated ideologies and powers that may have been better than ours when you study some of the Native American systems of governance.

      by SarahLee on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 11:00:15 AM PDT

•  We are Rome.

  We auction our representation to the highest bidder and have relinquished our power to an emperor.

  We have exploited the world's resources for comfortable lifestyles.

  We are addicted to the coliseum of sport distracting us from the blood letting of our youth.

  We are falling.  The great experiment is failing.

  I hear the gods crying.

  by Cato come back on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 10:00:20 AM PDT

  •  Given Cato's ideology during Roman

    times and his hatred of Caesar for wanting patricians to share power with the people, you user name connected to your comment is rather ironic.  

    by SarahLee on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 11:43:04 AM PDT

•  The sooner they go to Constantinople...

  ...the quicker we become Italy.

  It could be worse.

  by dj angst on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 10:14:59 AM PDT

•  lol I remember that movie!

  I have to admit I'm a sucker for toga movies myself. I remember se that film on something like the late show many many moons ago. I had forgotten what movie that line came from but it has always stuck in my head.

  So, consider me a guilty sinner too.

  by Unbozo on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 10:31:06 AM PDT

•  What a great diary, thanks for this.

  You have succinctly tied the personal with the political, which itself is always constrained by historical precedent made clear by your Via Domitia reference.

  And Chris Hedges is one of the best writers out there to tie everything together from a vantage point of history and underlying agendas of a US political machine with two branches that are not very dissimilar to one another ultimately.

  Your title "You can gear the gods laughing..." reminds me of the following lyrics from the Joni Mitchell song "Sweet Bird":

  Golden in time
  Cities under the sand
  Power ideals and beauty
  Fading in everyone's hand.

  Behind our eyes
  Calendars of our lives
  Circled with compromise
  Sweet bird of time and change
  You must be laughing
  Up on your feathers laughing...

  by codigo rojo on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 10:56:49 AM PDT

•  Pictures?

  I really enjoy hearing about France.

  My visit to Europe in 1972 was too short, but I have wonderful memories.  

  Roman aqueducts are so impressive.  I saw the Roman roads winding on the tops of the hills in England's Lake District.

  I do think that the spirit of many people is still strong and we will prevail.

  I really do, even when I get discouraged.  

  by cfk on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 01:07:12 PM PDT

•  We're On the Downside

  All great societies have a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think it's America's turn to pass its prime. As individuals we need to find a way of thinking that keeps us swimming smoothly through whatever happens instead of sinking or struggling.

  This diary echoes my thoughts as shown in my sig.

  by JG in MD on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 04:57:08 PM PDT