If you can learn one important lesson today, it is this: liberalism is not new. It has existed as long as politics itself, and there is a long history of liberal activism, policy and outcomes that we can study. The lessons in history are important, and they bring invaluable illumination to the present.
With that in mind, we’ll take a deep look at ancient history, namely Greece and Rome, and see how liberalism has fared over the eons. We’ll also see if anything has really changed after thousands of years of this political and economic style. In the end, you’ll learn the real purpose of liberalism and why it should scare you more than any other ideology in the present. And yes, that includes Islam and socialism.
Contrary to liberal beliefs, entitlement programs were not invented by FDR during the Great Depression. Their true origin is so ancient that historians argue about when they were first enacted by a government in power. What isn’t in question is whether or not the programs ever worked.
One of the earliest accounts of widespread entitlement dates back to ancient Athens. The city state was one of the first places to ever incorporate democracy into their government, and the rule of the masses eventually ran into problems.
As the state grew wealthier and more powerful, the populous demanded more from their government. Called ochlos, the masses called for redistribution of wealth, higher taxes on the wealthy and government-funded programs to provide food to all. This seems too eerily familiar to be real, yet it is well-documented history.
It is, in fact, the dangers of the ochlos that made the founding fathers of America so afraid of true democratic rule. There are more defenses built into our government structure against democracy than monarchy or dictatorship.
Athens was one of the earliest examples, but it wasn’t the most prolific. The original Roman republic was established specifically to counteract the mob rule of liberal Greeks. Their reluctance to engage in entitlement programs was the source of their strength and enabled their long reign, but there were several points in Roman history that saw entitlement lead to catastrophe.
One of the most famous examples was during the reign of Commodus. His history is loosely adapted in the film Gladiator, but it misses the finer points. Commodus used games and handouts to win the heart of the Roman mob. His entitlement programs led to growing demand for more, and it culminated in several governors being overthrown in revolt and the assassination of Commodus himself.
While Rome did recover from Commodus’ failures, the dangers of liberal ideology returned like a plague. When Rome finally fell, it was because the coffers had been bankrupted through entitlement programs designed to appease an insatiable mob. Without the funds to maintain the military, Rome was easy pickings for the Goths, Barbarians and Huns.
Entitlements are not the entirety of failed liberal ideology. In fact, many historians attribute the fall of Rome to moral decay. While the entitlement programs had a direct impact on Rome’s military potency, it is the underlying philosophy of liberalism that lends itself to such damaging policy. We often complain that the left is morally bankrupt today, but history shows that modern liberals are not revolutionary thinkers. They are following an ancient tradition.
Once again, we can look at ancient Greece as an example. The demand for redistribution of wealth is what undermined Athenian dominance during the peak of the Hellenic period. Politicians became so embattled with internal strife that they were unable to amass a resistance to the Macedonians. In fact, the Macedonians had large stakes in Athenian politics long before they invaded. When it came to the decisive battles, the Athenians barely participated. Once conquered by Macedonia, Athens was never free again.
The entirety of Greece followed a similar fate a few hundred years later. When Rome broke the back of the Greek armies and conquered the nation, half of the Greek soldiers didn’t participate. This was primarily because the Greeks no longer believed in their own virtue. Large portions of the population welcomed the invasion in the hopes it would end their longstanding corruption.
I could talk about history all day, but the whole point is to put it in a modern context. Throughout history, dominant cultures and nations have fallen. The story is pretty much always the same. The people stop believing in themselves. Moral decay is a broad term, but it really refers to a shift in ideology when nationalism and pride are traded for self-degradation. Rome fell when the people no longer valued their heritage and ideology. They gave up. The same can be said for the Greeks, the Byzantines and the British Empire.
You don’t need to have the parallels spelled out for you. The liberal narrative today is that America is the great evil in the world. Our imperialism is the only reason for strife in the Middle East (despite roughly 10,000 years of continuous war), and our greed and capitalism are the source of all poverty (even though poverty has declined faster in the last 20 years than any other point in human history). They call for ancient tax and entitlement programs that directly contributed to the downfall of every great civilization that came before us.
Plenty of voters on the left are simply seduced by the promises. The government will provide, so you don’t have to. But, there are real scholars among liberals. They know these histories, and they know them well. Anyone who has studied the past and still claims to be liberal is knowingly and actively working to bring the downfall of America.
I can’t pretend to tell you why they feel this way, but they are using the same tactics that were employed throughout history. When our great nation falls, it will be because we stopped defending it, and liberalism, at its core, is the weapon that can bring us to that point.
