Rome is falling

Once upon a time I wrote here every day, and I even took the time to think about the topic, edit, and answer the comments to each post. Somehow, though, I lost interest. It was 2005 when I became fed up with the resident troll's nonsense and disillusioned with partisan politics. I had a sort of renewal when election time came around and I volunteered for Webb's campaign, but it wasn't until I bought my camera that I actually had a desire to post here again. Unfortunately, I don't really have the time. Part of the reason is that I have more responsibility at work, where I used to write most of my posts. Another reason is that I have a pretty successful baseball blog, something that isn't wrought with negativity. Mostly, though, is that I just don't have the intellectual energy to sustain something so hostile. I'm sick of negativity, and that is pretty much what politics is these days. The internet is a hostile place, and it is beginning to spill out into the real world. Just today at a huge organizational staff meeting, the VP had to tell people to be respectful when using the anonymous suggestion box. Evidently there were some pretty nasty messages in there.

Is respect completely dead in this country? The hyperindividuality and the I-don't-give-a-damn-about-anybody-but-myself attitude that has taken over this country points to yes. Mine is a generation of children of baby boomers who were never taught to say please or to look behind them when going through doors. Every damn day I get a door slammed in my face or reach an elevator only to be met by a closing door. This generation does not say "please," it says "gimme" - just watch people dealing with waiters.

These are just minor examples of a major cultural shift to ambivalence towards fellow human beings. Yeah, it's cliche about hearing elders say "kids these days," but they have a point. It's as if every generation loses a bit more respect, and I wonder if we've lost it totally.

The latest sign of disrespect for others is the wingnut take on the murderer at VT. Do you know what they say? They say the murderer was a "leftist" because he expressed "hatred for the rich" as if people on the left advocate murder. Nevermind that he also expressed hatred for hedonism, which is what the rightwing moral police are always trying to legislate against, or that he claimed he was dying just like Jesus, the ultimate rightwing hero. The wingnusts are full of such hatred and disrespect for human life that they need to turn a tragedy into a comedy on their stage of hatred. (Comedy in the classical sense, not the popular ha ha sense.)

* * *

This weekend was so beautiful I decided to go down to the construction site of the new Nationals stadium to take some photos and to see something new to relieve the monotony of small town DC. Construction sites can give you great photos! Anyway, when I had taken 70+ photos, I began to drive home, traveling along the SW Waterfront until I hit 12th Street, a northbound one way street. I had to drive through the Mall and turned my head to the East to see my favorite building in the world - the United States Capitol. I began to lament the fact that I was driving, for I wanted to stop but knew parking was nearly impossible, when lo and behold! A metered spot two blocks from the Mall! It was in front of Ollie's Trolley, so I grabbed a pulled pork sandwich and took my "picnic" to the Mall to eat it. The crowd level was perfect - not too many, but enough to feel alive with a lot of DC residents to balance out the tourists.

I ate and headed towards the Capitol, past the carousel and the myriads of people playing baseball or soccer or frisbee. It was just an incredible day and even the doomy and gloomy among the people managed a smile every now and then. And how could you not? We had been moving towards warmth and light and then suddenly we were plagued with a couple of surprising and unwelcome weeks of extra winter! Finally, warmth was upon us, and on a weekend, too!

I stopped at the sculpture garden on my way. I'm not a huge fan of modern sculpture, but I do love Rodin. The garden has three Rodin pieces, including another version of the Balzac piece that I swear is also in Paris. People find it strange when I say the Rodin Museum is my favorite museum in Paris, but it is. It's the garden with all the roses that does it for me, I think. The Gates of Hell is an incredible piece, too. I'd say Cho has already passed through those gates, don't you think?

I also found the sculpture of this warrior incredible. Those sculptures called "man raising hands" and stuff to that effect that are just blobs of bronze are rather pretentious for my tastes, but this warrior guy? Just look at the detail in those muscles. I wish I remembered who created it.

After the garden, I continued to amble down towards the Hill, finally reaching the sad pool filled with garbage in which the building is reflected. You tend to forget how long is the Mall until you walk an hour for a distance that looked half of that. It always amazes me when I look at the time after I've been walking - and I walk quickly. I can't imagine what it's like for some Midwestern tourist who gets in a car to drive ten minutes to work.


Seeing the garbage in the pool (which you can't see in the photo due to the reflection) was when the point of this post finally hit me. As I stared up at that majestic temple to democracy and looked down the length of the Mall, images of visits to Rome came to my mind. Washington was designed to look like an imperial city. The garbage in the pool is like the garbage that polluted the fountains of Rome when it fell into decline.

If one opens his eyes and remembers history is not a story but something we live and we are constantly witnessing times that may be recorded in historical books, whether they be about war or culture or architecture or anthropology, he should be able to make the comparisons. Are we going to be remembered as the ones who let Rome fall, who are responsible for the decline of a great civilization, who watched apathetically as our society decayed and lost respect for itself? Plato, who lived under another great society, watched in horror as his culture, his great civilization, declined until if fell. It has never recovered. The causes of its decline, according to him? Excessive individualism, materialism, and warmongering.

Those who think there is nothing wrong with individualism and materialism need to READ YOUR DAMN HISTORY and lose the cavalier it-can't-happen-to-me attitude. Look at what is happening! You have wackos shooting up college kids and a whole freaking religion intent on blowing up everything Western. There are high school shootings and people shooting up coworkers. Gangs and urban warfare plague the city streets. How the heck can you think everything is A-OK when all of this crap is happening???

History has a curious way of repeating itself, and it's a damn shame America thinks history is "boring" and not worthy of study (I overheard a mother tell another mother on the Mall yesterday, "Since history isn't taught any more, we had to bring the kids here.) As a wise man once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Wake up.
___