Another Roman Empire? I Think Not

Our modern Western culture has often been compared to the Roman Empire. There are people who sincerely believe that our culture will become worse and worse, accelerating down the road toward unfettered depravity and debauchery, until it ultimately implodes like the Roman Empire did.

To those who worry that these predictions might be right, I say relax - it's not going to happen. As a culture, there are lines that that we will charge right up to, but will never cross. We will continue to get closer to the predicted end, but will never get there. Think of it like dividing by two. One can start with any positive number and divide by two and then divide the result by two and then divide that result by two, etc., etc. The subsequent results will get closer and closer to zero but a result equaling zero will never be reached.

Make no mistake; there are individuals who know no limits. However, as a society, we seem to have a collective conscience that keeps us within certain constraints.