Make Rome fall again Trump’s UFC spectacle turns America’s birthday into a bloodsport metaphor for imperial decline

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via RT:

Studying archaeology, alongside Greek and Roman Civilization, for my bachelor’s degree has given me a pessimistic outlook on the world. At least that’s what my dad told me in June 2001 on a drive from Istanbul to Dublin. Yet he’s to blame for my studying the science after bringing me to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in the cinema. The romantic career turned quickly into something different, when learning about ‘panem et circenses’ [bread and circuses] and standing knee deep in medieval human waste in the middle of an Irish bog.

As much as I enjoyed the classical world and knowing that the best finds usually emerged from cess pits, when I began covering sports the transition into the cess pit that is mixed martial arts (MMA), and especially the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), was a transition too far. For those offended by my words, then combat sports are not for you.

For 20 years I boxed up to international level, winning many medals, titles, and sharing the ring with legends like Wayne McCullough (Olympic silver medallist and pro world champ), Jake Matlala, Istvan Kovacs, and Naseem Hamed (all pro world champs). Punching someone in the head while they’re on the ground, or writhing about in tight shorts on the back of another person while trying to choke them, is not my cup of tea. I respect MMA fighters and coaches, but not their sport. Then again, seeing men beat up women for Olympic medals and ‘influencers’ beating up pension-age ex-boxers has stolen my fate in modern boxing too.

So, when I heard that there would be a UFC ‘event’ held at the White House, the Washington version, my archaeological senses took over and I immediately went back to the collapse of the Roman Empire. UFC Freedom 250 is the most appropriate event to celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, because it is another step down the path to self-immolation of the US Empire.

How Rome fell
As we close in on the bread and circuses in Washington D.C., a reminder of the signs that Rome’s time as a global power was ending.

– Debasing the currency: Reducing the amount of silver in coinage while increasing the amount of coins until they became worthless and debt levels soared.

– Self-serving government: From governing for the people and republic, senators and civil servants increasingly went into politics to enrich themselves, their friends, their backers, and their families.

– Outsourcing military: Instead of producing and providing for their armies, they put it all out to tender, without corruption checks. Not to mention hiring mercenaries.

– Infrastructure failure: Roads, bridges, ports, aqueducts etc were all neglected, with a focus on building follies and vanity projects.

– Populace disengages with civil life: Disillusioned, feeling unrepresented and ignored, the people turn away from trusted institutions. Not from apathy, but by choice. Increasing civil disobedience.

– Increased focus on bread and circuses: Keeping the plebs satisfied with bribes and/or entertainment became the norm. The more debased, outrageous, and insane the better.

– Divide to rule: The empire splits to manage it better, resulting in equal but different halves of the same entity. Externally, the entire structure looked weak to predators.

– Borders lose meaning: Security and stability are overlooked with occasional attempts by rulers to enforce rules of passage into and through the empire. But when it was generally accepted, it was too late, borders simply became lines on a map.

– It went bang, with a whimper: In 476 AD, Romulus Augustus was deposed and Odoacer simply informed Constantinople that the West no longer needed an emperor.

And there you have an annotated recap of how the Roman Empire fell. Can we see parallels with the US? Dollar debased, soaring debt levels, civil disobedience, belated attempts to secure the border, bridges collapsing and railways in disrepair? Big pharma reaping rewards from ‘zombifying’ citizens? The ‘circuses’ are coming hot and fast with a FIFA World Cup and Summer and Winter Olympic Games to come within the next decade. Yet, staging a UFC event on the White House lawn, not even Juvenal, who first used the term bread and circuses in 100 AD, could have expected that.