Fall of Rome?

There is a chapter in Catch 22 when Nately is trying to track down his whore, Nately's Whore, as she is called. After weeks of fruitless searches while on leave in Rome he finally finds her and the two head back to the brothel. As he enters the brothel he is greeted by an old man, who claims to be over 100 years old, sitting in an arm chair as if he is some sort evil deity. He was making jokes about America, much to the dismay of Nately. "America will lose the war and Italy will win it," said the old man. Nately, left almost speechless by such a preposterous statement, quipped "America is the strongest and most prosperous nation on earth and the American fighting man is second to none." The old man told Nately that it was Italy that was in fact winning the war, not by its military success (it was occupied by America) but rather the fact that no more Italian soldiers were dying; Germans and Americans were now dying in this war. Italy was occupied. It surrendered. Italy had fallen to the wayside and was no longer a threat to the global stage. "I call that doing extremely well," the old man said. The old man claimed Italy's diminished role in the world would benefit its longevity.

"Yes, I am quite certain that Italy will survive this war and still be in existence long after your own country has been destroyed."

Nately sure didn't like to hear that. "America is never going to be destroyed!" he shouted passionately. The old man answered "Never?"

"Rome was destroyed, Greece was destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you really think your own country will last? Forever?"

"Well, forever is a long time, I guess," Nately conceded.

"A million years? A half million? The frog is almost five hundred million years old. Could you really say with much certainty that America, with all its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man that is second to none, and with its standard of living that is the highest in the world, will last as long as...the frog?"

I thought of this passage when I recalled a history teacher of mine in high school bringing up something similar to what Heller was trying to demonstrate in Catch 22: We will fall someday. Now is an interesting time to dwell on Joseph Heller's words. Nothing seems to be going in the right direction here. The buckling of our economy and our waning global influence certainly entertain this idea.



Even if Barack Obama is elected president how much can one man do to reverse the scarring effects of the past eight years? What is even more scary is the thought of electing somebody like this:





The 20th century was America's century. It now looks like we will soon bow out. We were no match for the frog.