In today's economy we are faced with fears of losing our jobs, inflation, stock market crashes, and war. These fears feed decisions we make every day with our careers, what we buy, and how we live. Over a thousand years ago, the same things were going on. We just have more electronics than the Romans.
The world was full of anger, violence and conquest. The Romans specifically were masters of those three traits. Spanning an empire across Europe and towards the middle east, they destroyed many civilizations in an attempt to spread and preserve their own. But humanity has the ability to create and destroy everywhere. Where did the Romans go wrong?
Romans spent most of their time taxing their provinces, pulling all of the wealth of the world back to Italy, and looking for battles where they could capture more land and more treasure. Their economy was driven on trade and conquest, mostly the latter of those two values. However, after conquest, they did not massacre every people they defeated, but instead let them live. Over time, those peoples grew again, larger than before, and the Romans could no longer afford to defend their borders. One of the major problems was the people were no longer happy with their government. They chafed at the laws meant to guide them and hold them in place.
The Roman Empire collapsed, and with it the invading Germanic tribes managed to penetrate almost to the city of Rome itself. A great age was lost, and our world was plunged into darkness.
Media. It literally tells us what's going on everyday, causing us to make decisions immediately that affect our lives so quickly. We love this vast network that we so easily get lost in, but we come together over some of the greatest moments in time, as well as the worst.
i have a twitter account (@kadesound) and i like to mix in both heartfelt emotional statements about what is going on around me with idiotic/comedic commentary about things that are affecting my life. So far my vulgar statements have been ignored, while my smarter moments also seem to be untouched for the most part. We all say stupid things, right? No big deal. Yet it seems to be a great deal.
After recording a video of myself playing guitar, i checked my account and saw a statement by Ashton Kutcher yesterday, saying he didn't quite agree with firing Joe Paterno, the legendary Penn State Lions coach. The statement was made without Mr. Kutcher knowing what was going on with the sex scandal at the school, and the issue of Mr. Paterno not reporting what he had heard to the police. Ashton Kutcher quickly apologized and noted that he had not heard the entire story. A day later, Mr. Kutcher then made a statement saying that he would no longer control his own twitter account after his mistake. I wanted to know why.
The backlash at Ashton Kutcher was intense, people from all over the country attacking him for his statement after he apologized and then updated himself on the news. I noted that so many people felt it would be alright to scream at a celebrity, yet why were they angry at a mistake? Mr. Kutcher literally had nothing to do with the actual sex scandal, but as a football nut, was merely remarking on losing a historical football figure.
Welcome to the fading times, where a person can't make a mistake. If they do, they're publicly humiliated and crucified for it. Look at the anger of the people directed at Ashton Kutcher and Joe Paterno, when neither of them were sexually assaulting children. If you want to be angry at someone, Jerry Sandusky was the architect of that moment in our lives, the moment when we found out children hadn't even been given a chance to keep their innocence.
If I recall correctly, Ashton Kutcher has been involved in helping people most of his adult life, being more of a humanitarian than people would believe him to be. Yet people would lash out at him. Times are fading. We're losing our focus on what matters most, giving in to attacking the nearest target instead of finding the RIGHT target.
Remember, we're all human. If YOU say something wrong, but have done so many good things in your life, how would you feel?
Above is the video I was filming. It's about trusting your friend to help you and having a good time.
