Now, this is the Greece of yore, the one that was unified against the threat of Persia, the one that was ultimately conquered first by Phillip II of Macedonia, and then continued by Alexander the Great until his untimely death. How is America like Greece? And if were Greece, then who's Rome?
I'll answer the last question first, and explain later in this posting why I feel this way. The short and simple answer is China. China is Rome. Anyone who thinks otherwise is foolish.
Ok, on to the serious business of trying to link the USA with ancient Greece.
First and foremost, lets compare Greece to the US, versus Rome and China in terms of expansion. To begin, before Greece was unified under Phillip II, it was a land that was simply ruled by different kings, constantly squabbling and fighting over territory (much like our own states). Now, prior to Alexander the Great, the Greeks never had massive expansion campaigns, nothing major anyways. Similarly, the United States has held its own borders fairly well, only expanding when the price was right (a la Louisiana Purchase) or when the fight was worth the gain (Mexican-American Wars). This is dramatically unlike that of ancient Rome, which expanded at any given opportunity to grab resources and land (much like China is doing in Africa) which some argue was the primary reason for Rome falling. An empire so large was hard to control and its borders became very porous, leading to rebellions and marauding barbarians (arguably, the United States has more issues with that than China).
The second difference is technology. The biggest reason the Romans were so successful is the simple fact that they copied every single good idea the Greeks came up with. Everything from Art to Science was copied from the Greeks by the Romans and used to their own advantage. A perfect example of this is the introduction of private property ownership in China, a former "Communist" regime that is more of an authoritarian fascist government than one of true "Communism". Another example was allegedly leaked on the internet as photographs of a new Chinese stealth fighter they're developing. That's right, the Chinese are developing a brand new stealth fighter, ironic,it looks like a cross between the older F-22 Raptor and the brand spanking new F-35 Lighting II (or Joint Strike Fighter). Again, a pretty dramatic copy of a successful level of technology being implemented for their own use.
The third difference, and I think the most important one, and possibly the last one I touch on tonight, is a simple matter really and that matter is size. China is essentially tied with the US for overall size, but that size does include Alaska, subtract that and we are surely smaller. Now, on top of that factor in the incredibly rich resource area of northern China known as Manchuria, similarly sized coal reserves and an abundant mountainous region in the south known as the Himalayas which as far as I know have not yet been fully explored for their natural resources, and that's just minerals. The region of southeast Asia is fairly full of possible oil reserves, not to mention the closeness to Russia (a massive petroleum monster), its cozy relationship with the entire Middle East (it doesn't have any issues with Islam, and it kindly keeps its nose out of other peoples business, none of that Christian values of trying to help others ruining their plans) for petroleum products, it's booming industry's and its increasingly powerful technological and financial sectors and you have the possibilities of a very strong country, and empire if you will. This doesn't even include the most important factor, and that's population. China's population dwarf's that of the United States by just over 4 to 1.
Ancient Rome was not only larger than Greece in size, but in population. It took the technology that it gained and used it to it's advantage. It's power was unmatched, but that was its eventual downfall. To much power to control, to much land, and a constant barrage of marauders and opposing army's like Hannibal or Attila eventually lead to the crushing defeat of Rome.
So, does that mean we must stem the tide of power? To be honest, in my personal opinion, I don't think we could if we tried, nor should we. The power of Rome was unmatched, but not unquestioned. It's shear weight crushed itself, as we are seeing now. Without a blistering rate of growth the poor who moved from the countryside have began to become restless, tired of a lack of freedom. But, much like ancient Rome, the government knew how to stem the tide of discontent. I say we watch and wait to see what happens.
Keep your eyes open, I know I will.
Smus.
The F-22
The F-35
New Chinese stealth fighter
