CDZ Devolution of the USA?

[Moonglow]

Rome fell because of military over reach, booty that paid the army ran out when Pax Romano was the policy and no new lands to loot to pay for the military was the result..... thus they also had too many people contending for the position of emperor which cause many civil wars. Rome had always allowed foreigners into their empire...That is what made them great.

Actually Rome forced many foreign groups into their empire and/or into abject slavery. They entered Rome in chains more often than not. The Roman economy was largely dependent on slavery; not being friendly to immigrants. There was no easy way for an immigrant to become a Roman citizen unless they were wealthy enough to bribe corrupt government officials. I don't think Rome was nearly as "great" as it is often portrayed.

Neither was Alexander, but...

 

[jwoodie]

Ok, so either mental discipline leads to higher intelligence or it doesn't.

Playing video games (rather than reading or writing) probably impairs IQ. Do you think that playing pool also leads to higher intelligence?

 

[G.T.]

Ok, so either mental discipline leads to higher intelligence or it doesn't.

Playing video games (rather than reading or writing) probably impairs IQ. Do you think that playing pool also leads to higher intelligence?

Im not the one who made the inference that mental discipline leads to higher intelligence, you were.

 

[jwoodie]

Im not the one who made the inference that mental discipline leads to higher intelligence, you were.

Ah, a retreat to word mincing! I also mentioned higher order thinking, but that seems to have escaped you as well. The point is that video gaming (or holding your breath underwater) involves a certain mental discipline in a narrow sense, but it does not contribute to higher intelligence. Reading and writing does.

 

[G.T.]

Im not the one who made the inference that mental discipline leads to higher intelligence, you were.

Ah, a retreat to word mincing! I also mentioned higher order thinking, but that seems to have escaped you as well. The point is that video gaming (or holding your breath underwater) involves a certain mental discipline in a narrow sense, but it does not contribute to higher intelligence. Reading and writing does.

Reading and writing does nothing video and talking cannot.

 

[jwoodie]

Reading and writing does nothing video and talking cannot.

You have no understanding of the human brain or its development. Good luck.

 

[G.T.]

Reading and writing does nothing video and talking cannot.

You have no understanding of the human brain or its development. Good luck.

Cop out, best wishes.

 

[Unkotare]

"… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: Bread and circuses."
Juvenal

“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a ‘warm body’ democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction. It depends solely on the wisdom and self-restraint of citizens… which is opposed by the folly and lack of self-restraint of other citizens. What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it… which for the majority translates as ‘Bread and Circuses.’
‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
Robert A. Heinlein

*****SMILE*****

The US is not an empire or a true democracy, so...

 

[jwoodie]

Reading and writing does nothing video and talking cannot.

You have no understanding of the human brain or its development. Good luck.

Cop out, best wishes.

Do you really not understand that they involve different parts of the brain?

 

[G.T.]

Reading and writing does nothing video and talking cannot.

You have no understanding of the human brain or its development. Good luck.

Cop out, best wishes.

Do you really not understand that they involve different parts of the brain?

Where they're interpreted in the brain is irrelevant. Efficiency is more intelligent....

The purpose of reading and writing is what....

Communication.

Now, focus....

When you read something, are you seeing emotion on a face? Hearing vocal inflection? Watching body language/hand motion?

Reading and writing is the basic bitch in terms of efficiency in communication, as compared to audio and video.

 

[Damaged Eagle]

"… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: Bread and circuses."
Juvenal

“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a ‘warm body’ democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction. It depends solely on the wisdom and self-restraint of citizens… which is opposed by the folly and lack of self-restraint of other citizens. What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it… which for the majority translates as ‘Bread and Circuses.’
‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
Robert A. Heinlein

*****SMILE*****

The US is not an empire or a true democracy, so...

I never said the United States was a democracy... As a matter of fact you'll never hear me say that.

On the other hand ancient Greece was considered both an Empire and democracy... Look what that got them conquered and enslaved by the Romans.

*****SMILE*****