Cullen Murphy and his youngest son had just landed at Shannon Airport in Ireland. As they were taxiing to the terminal, the pilot suggested that everyone aboard look out the plane windows. Parked next to them on the runway were both Air Force Ones, sitting nose to nose, and the general entourage that follows a sitting president: Secret Service agents, armed guards, snipers, the media, and curious gawkers. This was a rare sight in itself, but Murphy curiously thought of the Roman emperor Diocletian and the extravagance with which he traveled across his empire.
It was with this connection that he decided to write the book Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America, the subject of his discussion on Tuesday evening in the Murray Conference Room. The event was sponsored by the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics along with the Office of the Provost and Boston College Magazine.
Murphy, who is also the current editor at large for Vanity Fair magazine, began by examining the similarities and differences between America and Rome. One common aspect of the two "empires" is a following of manifest destiny, or the belief that both physical and technological progress is "unstoppable, permanent, and divinely ordained." Just as the Romans expanded their sphere of influence across the continent, American settlers pushed westward with fervor, righteously claiming all that they saw.
The military power of the two are also comparable, said Murphy. He said that currently, the United States is experiencing the problem of "imperial overstretch," or the idea that the army is too large to effectively control and too small to complete the mission for which it is fighting. This leads to an even bigger problem, one that the Roman Empire was not given the opportunity to fix: hired soldiers.
The Romans paid "barbarians" to fight for them and America is following this model by hiring private military contractors to provide security detail in American combat zones. One of these, Blackwater USA, has received much scrutiny over the past few months for its involvement in the killings of 17 Iraqi civilians on Sept. 16 and the shooting of a vice-presidential bodyguard last Christmas Eve.
The phenomenon of a mercenary army leads to another comparison: the experience of privatization or excessive patronage. The Roman Empire reached a point where powerful citizens were able to use the government for their personal benefit, and it was at this point that the empire collapsed. Murphy sees many similarities in America today, as he said that this is "one of the most insidious parallels," as it has the power to inflict the most long-term damage.
Although these similarities are broad and revealing, Murphy also noted the many differences between America and Rome. For instance, America is still a democracy, which Rome never was, and America has rejected slavery, while Rome always maintained that institution. Further contrasts of the two include the fact that America has a middle class, while the Roman Empire was exclusively composed of the elite and the poor.
After Murphy's initial introduction, professor Seth Jacobs of the history department was given a chance to respond. Through Rome's last gasp, Jacobs noted the disparity between those serving in the military and those who are citizens, a split that is becoming more evident in America as it relies on an all-volunteer army. When soldiers begin to rely solely on the guidance of their commanders, without any belief in the support of the common citizen, the decline of a civilization "may be irreversible," according to Jacobs.
Professor Tim Crawford of the political science department gave the next set of comments. He was more optimistic than Jacobs, stating that people feel compelled to resort to historical analogy when they encounter the novel and the complex.
What is more, Crawford stated that he does not believe that America will collapse as Rome did. "Rome held a monopoly on infrastructural power with no other political actors to contend with," he said. This is not true of America, he said, as its power is "quantitative" while Rome's was "qualitative." As U.S. political power wanes, it is likely the vacuum will quickly be filled by a European nation or China.
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