OK. Not really.
All that reincarnation crap is just deja vu crap that you pay some ashram big bucks to force feed you, over & over again.
But other people have been here before, and we can learn from their mistakes. Or not. Like the old saying goes, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to be liberal tenured professors..." Or something.
Victor Hanson ain't one of those. He's actually a very good historian who accurately informs and entertains. Like this paper, Why Did Rome Fall—And Why Does It Matter Now?
"Where does it all end? I have no idea, but offer only competing scenarios: 1) as our debt becomes unsustainable, we react and increase the retirement age, cut spending and entitlements radically, and renew our work ethic (impossible by choice, made possible by necessity), and enjoy a renaissance; 2) we become a UK-like museum, with witty cynical observers, as the new giants in Asia produce the next Microsoft, Exxon, and Ford, and we fade; 3) India and China discover that they too have a rendezvous with suburban blues, environmentalism, consumer regulation, and a pampered citizenry, and there is some sort of shared global postmodernism.
We inherited a wonderful infrastructure from our parents. A superb system of politics and economics was likewise given to us at birth. Many of us try to copy our grandparents and parents whose values and work ethic we increasingly eulogize. But against all that is that Roman notion of luxus, untold wealth and leisure that we see juxtaposed with shrill cries and accusations that we are too poor, exploited, and in need of someone else’s income. The wealthier we become, the louder and angrier we become that we are not even more wealthy."
Is our fate that of ancient Rome? Material progress resulting in ethical regress until those people on the fringe of our influence overtake us with our own successful methodology?
