11 – A New Dark Age?

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Somewhere near the end of the Fifth Century—it’s impossible to pin down an exact date because it wasn’t marked by a specific event, like a battle lost—the Roman Empire collapsed. For the previous millennium the Roman Empire had been the most powerful nation the world had ever known. Whether by force of arms or simply by settling and establishing their culture, they shaped the known world into their image.

And what an image it was. From England, south to Egypt and across the Mediterranean to the Middle East, the world benefited from Roman culture.

  • Roman buildings had an early form of “central heating.” The Romans had developed a method of forcing heated air thru tunnels under the floors of their buildings. This heated air was allowed to rise up thru holes in the floor and into each room.
  • The Romans had discovered how to manufacture glass—not just glass plates and bowls but sheets of clear glass to cover the windows. Roman houses and buildings could retain heat because the windows could be closed with glass.
  • Roman engineering achieved things that the rest of the world considered miraculous. Rome had running water. It was brought down from the nearby hills in miles of aqueducts. They had water in such abundance that they even had decorative fountains spraying water into the air.
  • The sewer system the Romans built more than 2,000 years ago is still in use in Rome today. It still works. It produces no detectable water pollution. And no one can figure out why.
  • The Romans combined their running water with their heating technology to build heated public baths. Bathing was a popular activity in Rome.
  • The Romans built multi-level structures several stories high—not just the famed Coliseum but apartment buildings and offices.
  • The Romans built the first large clear-span buildings by developing the concept of the arch.
  • Stonework built by the Romans was held together by cement, which they had discovered how to make from pumice, ground brick, and water.
  • The Romans built highways all across their empire. In Europe today, many modern highways are build on the roadbed of old Roman highways.

But late in the Fifth Century all that went away. Without the Roman legions to enforce the Pax Romana, the former Empire declined into anarchy. The following 400 years, known today as the Dark Ages, were the most brutal time in recorded history. Two out of every three children died before the age of six. Those who survived seldom lived past the age of thirty. No poetry, literature, or music came out of that period. For those born into that time, life was an unending struggle for one more meal, one more day of survival.

Areas that we know today as Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East—areas that had been ruled by the Roman Empire—fell into anarchy. When the never-before-seen greatness of Roman civilization was removed from individual and collective lives, those lives were much the worse for it. The Western world suffered extraordinarily when it could not provide what the Romans had.

When Rome stopped being the astonishing international power it was—and this occurred, incidentally, due to internal rather than external forces—an amazing amount of what was great and/or civilized about the world was lost for centuries.

Internal heating of buildings was lost. Not only was this technology not maintained in the Dark Ages, but the people of that time misunderstood the purpose of those underground tunnels. They used them as repositories for their waste, thereby adding to the significant sanitation problems of the time.

The technology of manufacturing glass died with the Romans—not just decorative glass, but all glass. Arrow slits became the predominant form of window treatment, with nothing coming between the elements and the openings in the walls until shutters were invented.

The practice of bathing in heated pools completely disappeared. In fact, the practice of bathing pretty much disappeared.

Multi-story housing disappeared, as did paved roads. If you drive in Europe today and find yourself driving on a straight road, you are almost certainly driving on a Roman road, one that had been blasted through whatever Roman engineers refused to accept as an obstacle.

Should the road be a curvy road, it is a European road. Engineering that came naturally to the Romans would not reappear in Europe for many centuries. In fact, roads basically disappeared in the Dark Ages, replaced by muddy, rutted pathways.

Architecture ceased to be both an art and a science. Engineering stopped being the remarkable practice it was under the Romans. Cement, which the Romans used to create wonders like the aqueducts, was no longer used because the knowledge of how to make it was lost. Arches, a seemingly miraculous form of building, were no longer used in buildings because no one knew how to design them anymore.

Things that had seemed so natural in Roman life, like socks, iron paddocks, odometers, horseshoes, long burning candles, and tile ceilings all ceased to exist in the Dark Ages.

The loss of civilization was remarkable. It took people centuries to recover many of the things that disappeared with the Romans.

 

It seems clear to me that Obama and his minions are trying to push us into a new Dark Age. What would we lose if they’re successful?

First, we would lose the greatest work of political, theoretical and economic freedom ever created, the U.S. Constitution. Obama and the people he has put in power do not like the Constitution. They can barely tolerate the Congress and the Supreme Court. To them, the sooner this “antiquated” document is relegated to the trash pile of history, the better.

The rights of the individual would be lost and replaced by the rights of the collective, thus making the United States something the Founding Fathers never meant it to be.

The private sector would exist only to support the efforts of the government. While it must continue to survive to accomplish that, the government will rigidly control it.

A class system will be established for the first time in American history. Those in power, the overlords who have no accountability except to the state, will be free to revel in all the perks they now pretend to distain.

We see this now in the behavior of Obama and his family, with their constant indulgence in luxury vacations while the people of our nation suffer more and more unemployment and financial hardship the longer this man remains in power.

The increasing misery and poverty of the American people mean nothing to Obama and his minions. They don’t care, as those in power in any totalitarian state never care. When they’ve achieved their goals we’ll be living in the new Dark Ages, but they won’t.

Humor will be lost, freedom of expression will be lost, entrepreurialism will be lost, individualism will be lost. Differences of opinion will no longer be tolerated. Divergence from the leftist agenda will not be permitted.

The Dark Ages is exactly what it connotes. It speaks of a time when there is no more enlightenment; no more freedom; no encouragement to create, to more forward, to bring light and creation and joy and comfort to one’s fellow creatures.

In the Fifth Century, the loss of the greatness of Rome led to a dark period in the history of the West, but the relentless creativity of man led to an eventual age of enlightenment.

The Dark Ages promised by Obama and his fellow leftists is a different matter entirely. It is a purposeful Dark Age meant to bring about a totalitarian uniformity for us all. It will not only destroy America utterly and completely—it could put in place a Dark Age that will last for all time.

 

The world is what it is today because of America. Every major scientific discovery, every major technological development, every major medicine and medical procedure came from America. The first airplane was invented in America. Likewise the telephone, the sewing machine, the cotton gin, the camera, the movie projector, radio, television, and the computer. The first footprint on the moon was made by an American.

But according to Barak Obama, America is arrogant…and intolerant…and lazy. According to Obama, there is no such thing as American exceptionalism. According to Obama, America needs to be brought down to the level of other nations and taught that we’re nothing special.

 

If you haven’t read George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-four, please do. If you have read it, please read it again. It’s a vivid picture of what a new Dark Age would be like.