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Rome primarily fell because of excessive taxation, an identification of social position with an indolent and luxurious lifestyle (rather than enterprise), and a reliance on German mercenaries to guard the border. Even so, Byzantium stood until the 15th century, and Rome remained the model for the emerging rulers in the West. The Roman lands of settlement continued to speak their dialects of Latin, and the barbarians continued to emulate Roman ways, to the extent that they were capable. Rome was destroyed politically, but culturally it remained paramount...Now, it is true that it took a long time to reach a similar civilizational level, but that was largely due to the peculiar conditions of printing technology at the time. As texts started to become available, particularly from Aristotle and his Muslim and Jewish commentators, a proto- Renaissance began in the West, in the 13th century. When Byzatium fell and fleeing scholars flooded Italy, the revival of learning took off! Unless we are so destroyed as to be without the resources of learning that we have available, we will do much better than they did...No, some will resist modernization. But it is like the Nazis: they could hug as many trees as they liked, and deplore the severance from instinct and blood involved in the modern world, but in the end they needed the military and industrial might that the modern world provided, and could not escape it...And their challenge to the West primarily failed because they believed all of their volkisch nonsense too much, and over- reached.... |
