Reading

I've been under the weather with a mostly annoying bug since Thursday, in which time I've polished off Muhammed Yunus' "Banker to the Poor", the first third of John Norwich's "History of Byzantium" and over 1,000 pages of its second installment.

A weird juxtaposition, that: Microloans in Bangladesh (and elsewhere) vs. the undulations of Imperial fortunes in the Mediterranean. But for the gulf in time and culture, both certainly put the lie to the political coprolite known as supply-side economics. The most fatal mistake the Byzantine Empire made was to switch from freeholders to mercenaries in its armies (thereby dooming the small freeholders to the depredations of the aristocracy). Similarly, the economies of scale (with their feudal bureaucracies) create the economic gated communities that deprive hundreds of millions (if not billions) of people of their basic needs.

The consequences of Byzantium's economic apartheid are of course well-documented. The consequences of our own will, sooner or later, be at our doorstep. If not in outright revolution, then in the form of a super-virus incubated in the squalor which our addiction to cheap gew-gaws has created.

But reading of the rise and fall of ancient empires brings to mind something my boss said several weeks ago after returning from one of those "executive retreat" junkets. Most of my firm's branches are in the U.S., but that fact apparently didn't dampen the opinion--the consensus, to hear by boss talk--that America has lost its place as the "thought leader" of the world.

In that light, it's hard not to consider this morning's headline-skim a harbinger, rather than anecdotal. For instance, there's Ireland--backed by the EU--trying to prevent further devastation from ghost nets. Then there's the--again--European efforts to offset deforestation. And to what pressing issues pray tell, are our far-thinking leaders turning their attention? Legalizing concealed carry in national parks. I soooo wish that I could say that I'm making that up.

Maybe it's just that I've spent two days immersed in the tragi-comedy that is history. But if that's any sampling of our relative priorities, the American "empire" is doomed--with neither the Huns or Seljuks to blame.