Whatever

[ghazi52]

 

[Nilgiri]

One word: WOKE

@Nilgiri @Hamartia Antidote @Gomig-21 @KAL-EL

Candace Owens raising her hand and smiling was the cutest moment haha.

 

[Nilgiri]

Some nice French cultural synthesis from late 19th/early 20th century....I especially enjoy the rainy atmosphere paintings captured by Cortes along with Satie music....it is very much the weather going on right now where I am too It would be interesting to have lived there around that time captured here.

@Vergennes @Taygibay @vostok @Gomig-21 @Hamartia Antidote @Desert Fox @Ashes

 

[Vergennes]

Some nice French cultural synthesis from late 19th/early 20th century....I especially enjoy the rainy atmosphere paintings captured by Cortes along with Satie music....it is very much the weather going on right now where I am too It would be interesting to have lived there around that time captured here.

@Vergennes @Taygibay @vostok @Gomig-21 @Hamartia Antidote @Desert Fox @Ashes

I always wanted to live in Paris during the period of "La belle époque" (1871-1914)..... I believe that was the best era to live in Paris.

 

[Ocean]

@Reichsmarschall recently saw one of the award functions organized by a multinational corporate unilever brothers and tv channel hum tv eulogizing that piece of shytt asma jhangia on their function and paying tribute to her honoring her with a posthumous award ,just click to play ,the video will itself play at the right timestamp ihave embedded the timestamp in link

Yeh khabees aurat zinda hoti tau terrorist pashteen movement ko ktina support kar rahi hoti

 

[Desert Fox]

@Nilgiri @Psychic @Metanoia @Nefer

 

[Metanoia]

@Nilgiri @Psychic @Metanoia @Nefer

I am attaching this 26 page book titled THE FATE OF EMPIRES and SEARCH FOR SURVIVAL by Sir John Glubb.

Take out 20 mins of your time and do read it.

 

[Desert Fox]

I am attaching this 26 page book titled THE FATE OF EMPIRES and SEARCH FOR SURVIVAL by Sir John Glubb.

Take out 20 mins of your time and do read it.

Very interesting. Thanks for linking this book. @Nilgiri @Psychic @LeGenD @PakSword

I haven't finished reading it yet but already two points in the book have caught my attention:

• "(b) Immense changes in the technology of transport or in methods of warfare do not seem to affect the life-expectation of an empire."
• "(5) An interesting deduction from the figures seems to be that the duration of empires does not depend on the speed of travel or the nature of weapons. The Assyrians marched on foot and fought with spears and bow and arrows. The British used artillery, railways and ocean-going ships. Yet the two empires lasted for approximately the same periods."

This is the mentality of some who believe that technological advancement somehow means that we humans have overcome our innate shortcomings which led to the downfall of empires and civilizations of the past. This especially applies to those who view the past through the lense of "oh those backwards people!".

We might be technologically advanced but we're still prone to the same innate shortcomings of our predecessors. Human nature will.never change come what may.

Also I'm not too sure as to the historical accuracy of the dates provided on the chart regarding the lifespan of the various Empires but based on that chart the average lifespan (from rise to fall) is approximately 238 years.

There are two other books of similar nature to this one but which examine the life-cycle of empires and civilizations from other angles. The first one is Sex and Culture by J.D. Unwin and the other is Decline of the West by Oswald Spenglar.

 

[Metanoia]

Also I'm not too sure as to the historical accuracy of the dates provided on the chart regarding the lifespan of the various Empires but based on that chart the average lifespan (from rise to fall) is approximately 238 years.

The writer does address this issue. Please read the rest of the book as well which has some very good information.

 

[Desert Fox]

The writer does address this issue. Please read the rest of the book as well which has some very good information.

Very interesting book. Enjoyed reading it


This part in particular is relevant to Islamic History. Unfortunately this is something that I have not known about in detail but only heard in passing. Could there be a book that covers this particular part of Islamic history in greater detail? @Psychic @Nilgiri

"The works of the contemporary historians of Baghdad in the early tenth century are still available. They deeply deplored the degeneracy of the times in which they lived, emphasising particularly the indifference to religion, the increasing materialism and the laxity of sexual morals. They lamented also the corruption of the officials of the government and the fact that politicians always seemed to amass large fortunes while they were in office."

"The historians commented bitterly on theextraordinary influence acquired by popular
singers over young people, resulting in a decline in sexual morality. The ‘pop’ singers
of Baghdad accompanied their erotic songs on the lute, an instrument resembling the
modern guitar. In the second half of thetenth century, as a result, much obscene
sexual language came increasingly into use, such as would not have been tolerated in an earlier age. Several khalifs issued orders banning ‘pop’ singers from the capital, but
within a few years they always returned."

"An increase in the influence of women in public life has often been associated with national decline. The later Romans complained that, although Rome ruled the world, women ruled Rome."

"In the tenth century, a similar tendency was observable in the Arab Empire, the women demanding admission to the professions hitherto monopolised by men. ‘What,’ wrote the contemporary historian, Ibn Bessam, ‘have the professions of clerk, tax-collector or preacher to do with women? These occupations have always been limited to men alone.’ Many women practised law, while others obtained posts as university professors. There was an agitation for the appointment of female judges, which, however, does not appear to have succeeded."

"Soon after this period, government and public order collapsed, and foreign invaders overran the country. The resulting increasein confusion and violence made it unsafe for women to move unescorted in the streets, with the result that this feminist movement collapsed."

"When I first read these contemporary descriptions of tenth-century Baghdad, I
could scarcely believe my eyes. I told myself that this must be a joke! The descriptions might have been taken out of The Times today. The resemblance of all the details was especially breathtaking—the break-up of the empire, the abandonment of sexual morality, the ‘pop’ singers with their guitars, the entry of women into the professions..."

On the Welfare State:

"The Arab Empire of Baghdad was equally,perhaps even more, generous. During the
Age of Conquests, pure-bred Arabs had constituted a ruling class, but in the ninth
century the empire was completelycosmopolitan."

"State assistance to the young and the poor was equally generous. University students
received government grants to cover their expenses while they were receiving higher
education. The State likewise offered free medical treatment to the poor. The first free public hospital was opened in Baghdad in the reign of Harun al-Rashid (786-809), and under his son, Mamun, free public hospitals sprang up all over the Arab world from Spain to what is now Pakistan."

"The impression that it will always be automatically rich causes the declining empire to spend lavishly on its own benevolence, until such time as the economy collapses, the universities are closed and the hospitals fall into ruin."

"Genghis Khan, one of the most brutal of all conquerors, claimed that God had delegated him the duty to exterminate the decadent races of the civilised world."

When a Mongol woman can stand
Your men in rows to await slaughter
By her hands you know you have reached
Peak sissiness and feminism​

​

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Other interesting Quotes from the book (some not in any particular order):

"All these periods reveal the same characteristics. The immense wealth accu-
mulated in the nation dazzles the onlookers. Enough of the ancient virtues of courage, energy and patriotism survive to enable the state successfully to defend its frontiers. But, beneath the surface, greed for money is gradually replacing duty and public service. Indeed the change might be summarised as being from service to selfishness."

"Another outward change which invariably marks the transition from the Age of Conquests to the Age of Affluence is the spread of defensiveness. The nation, immensely rich, is no longer interested in glory or duty, but is only anxious to retain its wealth and its luxury. It is a period of defensiveness, from the Great Wall of China, to Hadrian’s Wall on the Scottish Border, to the Maginot Line in France in 1939."

"The first direction in which wealth injures the nation is a moral one. Money replaces
honour and adventure as the objective of the best young men. Moreover, men do not
normally seek to make money for their country or their community, but for them-
selves. Gradually, and almost imperceptibly, the Age of Affluence silences the voice of
duty. The object of the young and the ambitious is no longer fame, honour or service, but cash."

"No longer do schools aim at producing brave patriots ready to serve their country. Parents and students alike seek the educational qualifications which will command the highest salaries. The Arab moralist, Ghazali (1058-1111), complains in these very same words of the lowering of objectives in the declining Arab world of his time. Students, he says, no longer attend college to acquire learning and virtue, but to obtain those qualifications which will enable them to grow rich. The same situation is everywhere evident among us in the West today."

"Money being in better supply than courage, subsidies instead of weapons are employed to buy off enemies. To justify this departure from ancient tradition, the human mind easily devises its own justification. Military readiness, or aggressiveness, is denounced as primitive and immoral. Civilised peoples are too proud to fight. The conquest of one nation by another is declared to be immoral. Empires are wicked."

"The weakness of pacifism is that there are still many peoples in the world who are
aggressive. Nations who proclaim themselves unwilling to fight are liable to be conquered by peoples in the stage of militarism— perhaps even to see themselves incorporated into some new empire, with the status of mere provinces or colonies."

"...[H]istory seems to indicate that great nations do not normally disarm from motives of conscience, but owing to the weakening of a sense of duty in the citizens, and the increase in selfishness and the desire for wealth and ease."

"In the eleventh century, the former Arab Empire, then in complete political decline,
was ruled by the Seljuk sultan, Malik Shah. The Arabs, no longer soldiers, were still the
intellectual leaders of the world. During the reign of Malik Shah, the building of universities and colleges became a passion. Whereas a small number of universities in the great cities had sufficed the years of Arab glory, now a university sprang up in every town."

"we have witnessed the same phenomenon in the U.S.A. and Britain. When these nations were at the height of their glory, Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge seemed to meet their needs. Now almost every city has its university."

It is useful here to take note that almost all the pursuits followed with such passion
throughout the ages were in themselves good. The manly cult of hardihood, frank-
ness and truthfulness, which characterised the Age of Conquests, produced many really splendid heroes."

"It is useful here to take note that almost all the pursuits followed with such passion
throughout the ages were in themselves good. The manly cult of hardihood, frank-
ness and truthfulness, which characterised the Age of Conquests, produced many really splendid heroes."

"In the same way, the vast expansion of the field of knowledge achieved by the Age of Intellect seemed to mark a new high-water mark of human progress. We cannot say that any of these changes were ‘good’ or ‘bad’."

"(b) the fact that the successive changes seem to represent mere changes in popular
fashion—new fads and fancies which sweep away public opinion without logical reason. At first, popular enthusiasm is devoted to military glory, then to the accumulation of wealth and later to the acquisition of academic fame."

"Why could not all these legitimate, and indeed beneficent, activities be carried on
simultaneously, each of them in due modera-tion? Yet this never seemed to happen."

"The spread of knowledge seems to be the most beneficial of human activities, and yet every period of decline is character-rised by this expansion of intellectual activity. ‘All the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing’ is the description given in the Acts of the Apostles of the decline of Greek intellectualism."

"In the ninth century, for example, in the age of Mamun, the Arabs measured the circum-
ference of the earth with remarkable
accuracy."

"Less than fifty years after the amazing scientific discoveries under Mamun, the Arab Empire collapsed. Wonderful and beneficent as was the progress of science, it did not save the empire from chaos."

"...ntellectualism leads to discussion, debate and argument, such as is typical of the Western nations today. Debates in elected assemblies or local committees, in articles in the Press or in interviews on television— endless and incessant talking."

"...ntellectual arguments rarely lead to agreement. Thus public affairs drift from bad to worse, amid an unceasing cacophony of argument. But this constant dedication to discussion seems to destroy the power of action. Amid a Babel of talk, the ship drifts on to the rocks."

"Perhaps the most dangerous by-product of the Age of Intellect is the unconscious
growth of the idea that the human brain can solve the problems of the world." (@jamahir )

"...[W]e see that the cultivation of the human intellect seems to be a magnificent ideal, but only on condition that it does not weaken unselfishness and human dedication to service. Yet this, judging by historical precedent, seems to be exactly what it does do."

"The brilliant but cynical intellectual appears at the opposite end of the spectrum from the emotional self-sacrifice of the hero or the martyr. Yet there are times when the perhaps unsophisticated self-dedication of the hero is more essential than the sarcasms of the clever."

"One of the oft-repeated phenomena of great empires is the influx of foreigners to
the capital city. Roman historians often complain of the number of Asians and
Africans in Rome. Baghdad, in its prime in the ninth century, was international in its
population—Persians, Turks, Arabs, Armenians, Egyptians, Africans and Greeks
mingled in its streets."

In London today, Cypriots, Greeks, Italians, Russians, Africans, Germans and Indians jostle one another on the buses and in the underground, so that it sometimes seems difficult to find any British. The same applies to New York, perhaps even more so."

"In the age of the first outburst and the subsequent Age of Conquests, the race is normally ethnically more or less homogeneous. This state of affairs facilitates a feeling of solidarity and comradeship."

"But in the Ages of Commerce and Affluence, every type of foreigner floods into the great city..."

"...[T]his great city is also the capital of the empire, the cosmopolitan crowd at the seat of empire exercises a political influence greatly in excess of its relative numbers."

"...[W]hile the nation is still affluent, all the diverse races may appear equally loyal.
But in an acute emergency, the immigrants will often be less willing to sacrifice their
lives and their property than will be the original descendants of the founder race."

"...[T]he immigrants are liable to form communities of their own, protecting
primarily their own interests, and only in the second degree that of the nation as a whole."

"...[M]any of the foreign immigrants will probably belong to races originally conquered by and absorbed into the empire."

"While the empire is enjoying its High Noon of prosperity, all these people are proud and glad to be imperial citizens. But when decline sets in, it is extraordinary how the memory of ancient wars, perhaps centuries before, is suddenly revived, and local or provincial movements appear demanding secession or independence."

"The idle and captious Roman mob, with its endless appetite for free distributions of food—bread and games—is notorious, and utterly different from that stern Roman spirit which we associate with the wars of the early republic."

"The original conquering race is often to be found in relative purity in rural districts and on far frontiers. It is the wealth of the great cities which draws the immigrants. As, with the growth of industry, cities nowadays achieve an ever greater preponderance over the countryside, so will the influence of foreigners increasingly dominate old empires."

"As the nation declines in power and wealth, a universal pessimism gradually pervades the people, and itself hastens the decline."

"Frivolity is the frequent companion of
pessimism. Let us eat, drink and be merry,
for tomorrow we die." (The YOLO concept (you only live once))

"The Roman mob, we have seen, demanded free meals and public games. Gladiatorial shows, chariot races and athletic events were their passion."

"...[T]he Press and television, football and
baseball are the activities which today chiefly interest the public in Britain and the United States respectively."

"The heroes of declining nations are always the same—the athlete, the singer or the
actor. The word ‘celebrity’ today is used to designate a comedian or a football player,
not a statesman, a general, or a literary genius."


"The people of the great nations of the past seem normally to have imagined that their
pre-eminence would last for ever. Rome appeared to its citizens to be destined to be for all time the mistress of the world. The Abbasid Khalifs of Baghdad declared that
God had appointed them to rule mankind until the day of judgement."

"Seventy years ago, many people in Britain believed that the empire would endure for ever. Although Hitler failed to achieve his objective, he declared that Germany would rule the world for a thousand years. That sentiments like these could be publicly expressed without evoking derision shows that, in all ages, the regular rise and fall of great nations has passed unperceived."

 

[Psychic]

Very interesting book. Enjoyed reading it


This part in particular is relevant to Islamic History. Unfortunately this is something that I have not known about in detail but only heard in passing. Could there be a book that covers this particular part of Islamic history in greater detail? @Psychic @Nilgiri

"The works of the contemporary historians of Baghdad in the early tenth century are still available. They deeply deplored the degeneracy of the times in which they lived, emphasising particularly the indifference to religion, the increasing materialism and the laxity of sexual morals. They lamented also the corruption of the officials of the government and the fact that politicians always seemed to amass large fortunes while they were in office."

"The historians commented bitterly on theextraordinary influence acquired by popular
singers over young people, resulting in a decline in sexual morality. The ‘pop’ singers
of Baghdad accompanied their erotic songs on the lute, an instrument resembling the
modern guitar. In the second half of thetenth century, as a result, much obscene
sexual language came increasingly into use, such as would not have been tolerated in an earlier age. Several khalifs issued orders banning ‘pop’ singers from the capital, but
within a few years they always returned."

"An increase in the influence of women in public life has often been associated with national decline. The later Romans complained that, although Rome ruled the world, women ruled Rome."

"In the tenth century, a similar tendency was observable in the Arab Empire, the women demanding admission to the professions hitherto monopolised by men. ‘What,’ wrote the contemporary historian, Ibn Bessam, ‘have the professions of clerk, tax-collector or preacher to do with women? These occupations have always been limited to men alone.’ Many women practised law, while others obtained posts as university professors. There was an agitation for the appointment of female judges, which, however, does not appear to have succeeded."

"Soon after this period, government and public order collapsed, and foreign invaders overran the country. The resulting increasein confusion and violence made it unsafe for women to move unescorted in the streets, with the result that this feminist movement collapsed."

"When I first read these contemporary descriptions of tenth-century Baghdad, I
could scarcely believe my eyes. I told myself that this must be a joke! The descriptions might have been taken out of The Times today. The resemblance of all the details was especially breathtaking—the break-up of the empire, the abandonment of sexual morality, the ‘pop’ singers with their guitars, the entry of women into the professions..."

On the Welfare State:

"The Arab Empire of Baghdad was equally,perhaps even more, generous. During the
Age of Conquests, pure-bred Arabs had constituted a ruling class, but in the ninth
century the empire was completelycosmopolitan."

"State assistance to the young and the poor was equally generous. University students
received government grants to cover their expenses while they were receiving higher
education. The State likewise offered free medical treatment to the poor. The first free public hospital was opened in Baghdad in the reign of Harun al-Rashid (786-809), and under his son, Mamun, free public hospitals sprang up all over the Arab world from Spain to what is now Pakistan."

"The impression that it will always be automatically rich causes the declining empire to spend lavishly on its own benevolence, until such time as the economy collapses, the universities are closed and the hospitals fall into ruin."

"Genghis Khan, one of the most brutal of all conquerors, claimed that God had delegated him the duty to exterminate the decadent races of the civilised world."

When a Mongol woman can stand
Your men in rows to await slaughter
By her hands you know you have reached
Peak sissiness and feminism​

View attachment 472474​

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Other interesting Quotes from the book (some not in any particular order):

"All these periods reveal the same characteristics. The immense wealth accu-
mulated in the nation dazzles the onlookers. Enough of the ancient virtues of courage, energy and patriotism survive to enable the state successfully to defend its frontiers. But, beneath the surface, greed for money is gradually replacing duty and public service. Indeed the change might be summarised as being from service to selfishness."

"Another outward change which invariably marks the transition from the Age of Conquests to the Age of Affluence is the spread of defensiveness. The nation, immensely rich, is no longer interested in glory or duty, but is only anxious to retain its wealth and its luxury. It is a period of defensiveness, from the Great Wall of China, to Hadrian’s Wall on the Scottish Border, to the Maginot Line in France in 1939."

"The first direction in which wealth injures the nation is a moral one. Money replaces
honour and adventure as the objective of the best young men. Moreover, men do not
normally seek to make money for their country or their community, but for them-
selves. Gradually, and almost imperceptibly, the Age of Affluence silences the voice of
duty. The object of the young and the ambitious is no longer fame, honour or service, but cash."

"No longer do schools aim at producing brave patriots ready to serve their country. Parents and students alike seek the educational qualifications which will command the highest salaries. The Arab moralist, Ghazali (1058-1111), complains in these very same words of the lowering of objectives in the declining Arab world of his time. Students, he says, no longer attend college to acquire learning and virtue, but to obtain those qualifications which will enable them to grow rich. The same situation is everywhere evident among us in the West today."

"Money being in better supply than courage, subsidies instead of weapons are employed to buy off enemies. To justify this departure from ancient tradition, the human mind easily devises its own justification. Military readiness, or aggressiveness, is denounced as primitive and immoral. Civilised peoples are too proud to fight. The conquest of one nation by another is declared to be immoral. Empires are wicked."

"The weakness of pacifism is that there are still many peoples in the world who are
aggressive. Nations who proclaim themselves unwilling to fight are liable to be conquered by peoples in the stage of militarism— perhaps even to see themselves incorporated into some new empire, with the status of mere provinces or colonies."

"...[H]istory seems to indicate that great nations do not normally disarm from motives of conscience, but owing to the weakening of a sense of duty in the citizens, and the increase in selfishness and the desire for wealth and ease."

"In the eleventh century, the former Arab Empire, then in complete political decline,
was ruled by the Seljuk sultan, Malik Shah. The Arabs, no longer soldiers, were still the
intellectual leaders of the world. During the reign of Malik Shah, the building of universities and colleges became a passion. Whereas a small number of universities in the great cities had sufficed the years of Arab glory, now a university sprang up in every town."

"we have witnessed the same phenomenon in the U.S.A. and Britain. When these nations were at the height of their glory, Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge seemed to meet their needs. Now almost every city has its university."

It is useful here to take note that almost all the pursuits followed with such passion
throughout the ages were in themselves good. The manly cult of hardihood, frank-
ness and truthfulness, which characterised the Age of Conquests, produced many really splendid heroes."

"It is useful here to take note that almost all the pursuits followed with such passion
throughout the ages were in themselves good. The manly cult of hardihood, frank-
ness and truthfulness, which characterised the Age of Conquests, produced many really splendid heroes."

"In the same way, the vast expansion of the field of knowledge achieved by the Age of Intellect seemed to mark a new high-water mark of human progress. We cannot say that any of these changes were ‘good’ or ‘bad’."

"(b) the fact that the successive changes seem to represent mere changes in popular
fashion—new fads and fancies which sweep away public opinion without logical reason. At first, popular enthusiasm is devoted to military glory, then to the accumulation of wealth and later to the acquisition of academic fame."

"Why could not all these legitimate, and indeed beneficent, activities be carried on
simultaneously, each of them in due modera-tion? Yet this never seemed to happen."

"The spread of knowledge seems to be the most beneficial of human activities, and yet every period of decline is character-rised by this expansion of intellectual activity. ‘All the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing’ is the description given in the Acts of the Apostles of the decline of Greek intellectualism."

"In the ninth century, for example, in the age of Mamun, the Arabs measured the circum-
ference of the earth with remarkable
accuracy."

"Less than fifty years after the amazing scientific discoveries under Mamun, the Arab Empire collapsed. Wonderful and beneficent as was the progress of science, it did not save the empire from chaos."

"...ntellectualism leads to discussion, debate and argument, such as is typical of the Western nations today. Debates in elected assemblies or local committees, in articles in the Press or in interviews on television— endless and incessant talking."

"...ntellectual arguments rarely lead to agreement. Thus public affairs drift from bad to worse, amid an unceasing cacophony of argument. But this constant dedication to discussion seems to destroy the power of action. Amid a Babel of talk, the ship drifts on to the rocks."

"Perhaps the most dangerous by-product of the Age of Intellect is the unconscious
growth of the idea that the human brain can solve the problems of the world." (@jamahir )

"...[W]e see that the cultivation of the human intellect seems to be a magnificent ideal, but only on condition that it does not weaken unselfishness and human dedication to service. Yet this, judging by historical precedent, seems to be exactly what it does do."

"The brilliant but cynical intellectual appears at the opposite end of the spectrum from the emotional self-sacrifice of the hero or the martyr. Yet there are times when the perhaps unsophisticated self-dedication of the hero is more essential than the sarcasms of the clever."

"One of the oft-repeated phenomena of great empires is the influx of foreigners to
the capital city. Roman historians often complain of the number of Asians and
Africans in Rome. Baghdad, in its prime in the ninth century, was international in its
population—Persians, Turks, Arabs, Armenians, Egyptians, Africans and Greeks
mingled in its streets."

In London today, Cypriots, Greeks, Italians, Russians, Africans, Germans and Indians jostle one another on the buses and in the underground, so that it sometimes seems difficult to find any British. The same applies to New York, perhaps even more so."

"In the age of the first outburst and the subsequent Age of Conquests, the race is normally ethnically more or less homogeneous. This state of affairs facilitates a feeling of solidarity and comradeship."

"But in the Ages of Commerce and Affluence, every type of foreigner floods into the great city..."

"...[T]his great city is also the capital of the empire, the cosmopolitan crowd at the seat of empire exercises a political influence greatly in excess of its relative numbers."

"...[W]hile the nation is still affluent, all the diverse races may appear equally loyal.
But in an acute emergency, the immigrants will often be less willing to sacrifice their
lives and their property than will be the original descendants of the founder race."

"...[T]he immigrants are liable to form communities of their own, protecting
primarily their own interests, and only in the second degree that of the nation as a whole."

"...[M]any of the foreign immigrants will probably belong to races originally conquered by and absorbed into the empire."

"While the empire is enjoying its High Noon of prosperity, all these people are proud and glad to be imperial citizens. But when decline sets in, it is extraordinary how the memory of ancient wars, perhaps centuries before, is suddenly revived, and local or provincial movements appear demanding secession or independence."

"The idle and captious Roman mob, with its endless appetite for free distributions of food—bread and games—is notorious, and utterly different from that stern Roman spirit which we associate with the wars of the early republic."

"The original conquering race is often to be found in relative purity in rural districts and on far frontiers. It is the wealth of the great cities which draws the immigrants. As, with the growth of industry, cities nowadays achieve an ever greater preponderance over the countryside, so will the influence of foreigners increasingly dominate old empires."

"As the nation declines in power and wealth, a universal pessimism gradually pervades the people, and itself hastens the decline."

"Frivolity is the frequent companion of
pessimism. Let us eat, drink and be merry,
for tomorrow we die." (The YOLO concept (you only live once))

"The Roman mob, we have seen, demanded free meals and public games. Gladiatorial shows, chariot races and athletic events were their passion."

"...[T]he Press and television, football and
baseball are the activities which today chiefly interest the public in Britain and the United States respectively."

"The heroes of declining nations are always the same—the athlete, the singer or the
actor. The word ‘celebrity’ today is used to designate a comedian or a football player,
not a statesman, a general, or a literary genius."


"The people of the great nations of the past seem normally to have imagined that their
pre-eminence would last for ever. Rome appeared to its citizens to be destined to be for all time the mistress of the world. The Abbasid Khalifs of Baghdad declared that
God had appointed them to rule mankind until the day of judgement."

"Seventy years ago, many people in Britain believed that the empire would endure for ever. Although Hitler failed to achieve his objective, he declared that Germany would rule the world for a thousand years. That sentiments like these could be publicly expressed without evoking derision shows that, in all ages, the regular rise and fall of great nations has passed unperceived."

Fascinating. Many of the points we discussed recently as well like the abundance of wealth etc.

 

[Desert Fox]

Fascinating. Many of the points we discussed recently as well like the abundance of wealth etc.

Indeed. Abundance of wealth makes people soft. This is why the wealthy elite of any country also tend to be very decadent. But now include the entire nation within that wealth and you have nationwide decadence.

Prosperity is beautiful when it is obtained through hard work because then it has value and one is grateful for it. But it is a curse when it is just handed down. Also, life has to have a greater purpose than simply the attaining of worldly pleasure. Islam has it correct when Allah (SWTA) has stated in the Quran that man and jinn were created to only worship Him (i'm paraphrasing). Everything serves as a means to that end. But despite this, human tendencies have taken over even within Muslims.

 

[jamahir]

"Perhaps the most dangerous by-product of the Age of Intellect is the unconscious growth of the idea that the human brain can solve the problems of the world." (@jamahir )

Isn't the human brain capable of such a thing??

 

[django]

@Zibago @Burhan Wani @Maarkhoor @war&peace @PakSword
Look at the smile on the handsome brother who embraced martyrdom against the tyrants from the Ganga.

https://twitter.com/x/status/993464482751016961

 

[war&peace]

@Zibago @Burhan Wani @Maarkhoor @war&peace @PakSword
Look at the smile on the handsome brother who embraced martyrdom against the tyrants from the Ganga.

https://twitter.com/x/status/993464482751016961

Martyrs always smile...that's the blessing of Allah Almighty..while the terrorists and suicide bombers get gruesome and ugly faces. Thank you for sharing and tagging bro..