Gibbon discusses the military factors, of course. One problem he mentions
is that, by the time of Constantine, many of the legions were withdrawn
from their posts on the borders and stationed within the Empire, often in
urban areas. This had been caused by the prolonged civil wars of the
Tetrarchy, during which the Roman armies mainly expected to fight each
other, but Constantine seems to have made this state of affairs permanent.
The border defenses were thus weakened while the urban areas had to suffer
the continued presence of large and probably unruly troops.
About the lack of young men willing to serve in the military, well the
terms of service were pretty harsh. A legionary was required to sign up for
20 years, and he could not marry during this time. He had little or no say
about where in a vast empire he would be posted.The pay was maybe decent,
but still I think that not too many people would opt for this kind of life
if they had a choice.
O.K.
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On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 3:55 AM, John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Lawrence, we agree.
Might add the qualifier that since Trump did not win the popular vote, his
appeal remains limited to a minority of Americans, currently somewhere
between 35-40%. Generalizations of the "Americans this, Americans that"
form are unwarranted.
Cheers. More poetry please.
John
On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 12:18 AM, Lawrence Helm <
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Trump has significant support, just not support by most of what we see on
TV, Netflix, or read in a lot of publications. Down here in a part of
California that usually votes for conservatives, I’ve seen a number of
articles in support of things Trump has done.
A lot of conservatives might well have wished for a different
presidential candidate, but whoever the party ran, they were convinced he
or she would be better than Hillary who provided a continuation of Obama
policies. So one might say that Trump won the election because he was
running against Hillary.
But not just that, there is an important voting segment in America
consisting of blue-collar workers who have resented corporations
outsourcing work to foreign countries and importing alien workers to
compete for their jobs. Trump in taking a populist stance, a stance taking
by many presidents and presidential candidates in the past, has appealed,
and still appeals, to them.
Bty, this Populist popularity isn’t restricted to Trump and the US, we
see it in Brexit. We see it in political movements in Europe. There is
something inherently wrong with welfare systems the depend on more and more
workers paying into them (foreign workers, since European birthrates have
dropped) when on the other hand most scientists are worried about global
warming which is contributed to by the “more and more” people welfare
systems need. Also, some people have started worrying about how many
people this planet can support.
Thus, many conservatives wish Trump was a classier, wish he would keep
his foot out of his mouth, hope he doesn’t start a nuclear war, but
appreciate his Populist point of view.
Lawrence
*From:* lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@freel
ists.org] *On Behalf Of *adriano paolo shaul gershom palma
*Sent:* Monday, October 02, 2017 9:37 PM
*To:* lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [lit-ideas] w
trumpland
is the term to offensive?
(it is a long time i do not go
to the us hence probably out of focus)
but potus has massive support
or not?
i d be glad of your opinion
On Tue, 03 Oct 2017 at 03:52, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Amused or not....
On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 11:22 PM, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ursula—millions of us down here are *not* amused by the word
'Trumpland.' So, would you...? Thanks.
Robert
On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 5:48 AM, Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If memory serves (warning: it doesn't always these days), I first heard
of Spengler through Henry Miller.
Ursula Stange
Somewhere north of Trumpland
I hadn’t heard of Spengler, peasant that I was, till I came toAmerica. Somehow he is better remembered here.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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