[poof131]

I sometimes wonder if we are in the mid to late republic. [1] I want to believe in the progress of the country, but sometimes it seems like stagnation since the 70s and that post WW2 may have been the zenith of the American Rebublic. The divide between military and civilian, the Tammany hall nature of D.C., the bread and circuses all around, our country has issues to fix.

But, I believe that we are moving forward, the world more than just the US, by many measures: mortality [2], poverty [3], violence [4]. So, I hope that we are something different than the Roman Republic and can last longer as a republic. My greatest fear is a 1984 style of perpetual surveillance, doublethink and corporate slavery. Oh wait, we are already there ;)

[1] - http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/laterep-index.html [2] - http://www.nber.org/digest/mar02/w8556.html [3] - http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/re... [4] - http://reason.com/archives/2012/01/11/the-decline-of-violenc...