"This is how Rome fell!" "Your historical comparison is poorly researched, insufficiently argued, and you should feel bad"
I am divided on how I feel about the current stay at home orders.
Location: Seattle WA
I am divided on how I feel about the current stay at home orders.
On the one hand, I finally have the time and a predictable schedule to do all the things that I’ve wanted to do. I’ve read more books in the last 2 months than in the last 2 years. I’m learning to draw and just finished learning how to apply shading to constructions. I’ve taken up historical archery and exercised 6 days a week for the last 2 months. A part of me is thoroughly enjoying not being expected to go places and do things and having the freedom to pursue my own passions.
On the other hand, I have friends in the medical field who are getting torn to pieces, a few of them are already sick and might die. I’m a former EMT myself and a part of me wants to be in the thick of it with my former squad and be all in it together and doing something that helps others. The rest of me is really glad that I don’t have to do that and is incredibly thankful to those doing the work I know is so hard.
My parents are both old so I’m glad that I can be at home to keep an eye on them, go get groceries, remind them not to go anywhere, shop for the neighbors, cook dinner, and just make sure we’re supporting each other. Even though it’s hard to be stuck at home with family I think I prefer over being by myself through all this so I’m grateful, even if it’s a bit much sometimes.
I also worry about what is going to happen to the United States. This pandemic, like external threats from throughout history, has just exacerbated and illuminated the problems we were already experiencing. What makes me scared is America’s inability to do anything once an issue becomes politicized and how nothing seems to be able to escape politicization these days. My biggest fear, however, is what’s going to happen in the aftermath, when people can go outside, business struggle to make up a massive backlog, and what we are going to do when we have a collapsing economy, rampant unemployment, and a non-functioning government? Similar circumstances have leveled civilizations greater than us. However, my history professor always scoffed at such comparisons and reminded us that when comparing historical events the differences are always more important than the similarities.
Overall I’m trying to make the best of a bad situation and help where I can. Through all this though I can’t help but wonder if Romulus Augustulus ever had any suspicions he would be the last Roman Emperor, or if he thought Rome would endure through the crisis and was just as surprised as everyone else when his empire crumbled. I’ve always found it interesting that civilization never can conceive of its own demise as if it’s exempt from the model of history. Even though their foundations are built on the ruins of a civilization who probably believed they would last a thousand years.
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