In this weekend episode, Victor Davis Hanson talks with cohost Sami Winc about the barbarian invasions that helped topple the Roman Empire. This is book ended by thoughts on Don Lemon’s misogyny, Chicago’s mayoral race, our own border and the drag-queen craze.
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Excellent as alway. You emphasized that civilizational decay precedes external invasion.
I wonder if you would consider viewing and subsequently commenting on a movie from a few years ago entitled IDIOTCRACY. Certainly not a masterpiece, but easily available for rent or purchase from Amazon.
The premise is a Rip van Winkle character wakes up 500 years in the future to discover the results of Darwinian natural selection in an environment of pampered ease. Spoiler alert – the median I.Q. has fallen to about 65.
There’s a similar piece of fiction, that projects that effect out to thousands of years into the future. It’s “The Time Machine”. Sometimes I think I can see the first step on the road to the Eloi in today’s society.
Thank you so much for your historical perspective and your wisdom. I look forward to your articles, television interviews, etc.
Wishing you excellent health, many years of thoughtful thinking and sharing them with us.
Ditto. Ditto.
Victor and Sami,
It is disheartening, and infuriating, to see the devastating transformation of our communities, the city streets, schools, and places of work. You are right about not feeling safe when going about one’s daily routine. Whenever a stranger comes to the door, I’m not sure if this person is trustworthy (though I do have a wary cattle dog who is ever watchful!). Thank you for your prompting to be more outspoken when defending right over wrong. Great podcast and I enjoy your weekend history lessons.
Not only was it a great history lesson, it incorporates comments from a piece he wrote just a couple weeks ago. That’s a fast turn-around! Well done!
P.s. for an intro to what some of those Northmen were like and how their hybrid culture evolved see: James Campbell “The Anglo-Saxons”. To see what “the last Roman and first Medieval” was like, try Boethius “Consolation of Philosophy”. The Penguin edition has a good intro and commentary.
I don’t know where to put this so I’ll leave it to the site managers. I am fairly new to the site and still trying to find my way around, so if I’ve missed something I’m sorry. I’d like to suggest having a list of the articles, just a table of contents, something like that. Because I’m not smart enough to deduce things by category. Also a way to search out one’s own comments. An edit button. And a monetary prize for the best comment. Because people like to linger over their wonderful comments. And some of us need money.
Sami made a great point. As a Trump supporter, I am 100% in agreement.
There are so many important issues to talk about and desperately needing Victor’s analysis and wisdom. But Trump is not one of them. There is plenty of Trump analysis, and Trump can speak for himself quite well.
The last 10 minutes about trans/race/sex was spot on.
P.S.
Victor talks a lot about institutional failures and decline like university, government, news, entertainment, corporation, etc. But I don’t remember he talked about church much. Why is that?
Here’s what I do not understand: Speaking of our institutions, why did things have to get so bad before they got noticed???
If I am to see a “silver lining” in any of this, it is that now, finally now, that we are vocally alarmed by what has been going on for decades and decades. Hopefully, the sane among us, will be sufficient to turn the tide.
If Trump gets the Republican nomination (I sure hope he does), I would be willing to bet, that some corrupt judge will issue a gag order on him. Outrageous you may say? Yes, of course. But has it not also been outrageous what the deep state institutions (count the course among them) have done thus far?
Fortunately, he has some excellent family member spokespeople, in sons, Eric, and Don Jr., as well as daughter-in-law, Laura. They should be able to get his message out.
There isn’t much we the people can do when the elites are willfully committing the country to suicide. If you have any doubt, just drive into Washington DC, and take a walk. There are homeless people and tents all around the damn place. No respecting center of power would allow it, unless it was done on purpose.
They want absolute power — so they’ll destroy the country, and rebuild it in their image.
We the people — just want to be left alone, and to pursue our American dreams.
Phil, regarding your 1st and 2nd paragraphs: I agree, this isn’t being down accidentally or out of ineptness. The previous administration left them a wonderful roadmap to success. Thankfully, I now notice that some on Fox News are calling it for what it is — deliberate. We have never seen this type of thing before — deliberate destruction of what we have. Surprisingly to me, anyway, virtually the entire Democratic Party is going along with it.
The following quote often attributed to Thos. Jefferson, I use to wear on a now worn-out tee shirt: “The government that governs the best, governs the least.”
The amount of low hanging fruit that was available to Donald Trump in his first term, that if he picked it, would have positive consequences for our entire country was enormous. All he needed to do was be basically apolitical, make his decisions based on sound economic principals, and have the backbone of steel necessary to stay the course. This was of course a very tall order. Rarely, do we see this in our leaders.
In my view Donald J. Trump proved he was up for this challenge. The results he got speak for themselves.,
Trump is great. He never give up.
In the final analysis he needs to find a way to win.
IRT to Rand Voorhies, specifically the suggestion for comments on the movie Idiotcracy, I’d recommend the SciFi novella by C. M. Kornbluth from the early 1950’s titled “The Marching Morons” – the inspiration for the movie.
Great story. Amusing and thought provoking. Kornbluff imagined earth in the future (from a 1950-ish perspective) where world population consists of about 5 billion morons preoccupied with sex, entertainment, and status symbol fads, secretly governed by a few hundred thousand reasonably bright, educatable bureaucrats.
On reflection… Kornbluth might be both novelist and prophet.
Wow, Victor Davis Hanson is really stretching to make this case. The barbarian invasions didn’t really help the Roman Empire fall, and in fact may have done the opposite. In any case, it’s a fascinating topic, and I’m looking forward to hearing more from Sami Winc.
Are you going for the idea that the Germanic tribes provided raw manpower willing to adopt Roman language, culture and administration to the degree they were available and the Empire, given its size, didn’t “fall,” but evolved into successor states: Byzantium, France, Spain, England, etc.?
Sami is the boss.
third paragraph should have read (count the courts among them). Sorry for this. I proofread my post twice before posting it, only then to see that this error escaped my detection.
No problem! Between fat fingers and dyslexia, you won’t find me throwing any stones!
Good man. 🙂