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Quote of the Day: An Uncanny Resemblance
I am into ancient Egypt these days. I listen to the Egyptian History Podcast when I’m on my otherwise-boring home rowing machine, and the workout just flies by. I’m also reading The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson. In the book, I am now up to the New Kingdom era of the Ramesside Pharaohs, from 1360-1069 BC. This quote sent chills down my spine.
In the end, internal rather than external factors undermined the pharaonic state. A loss of royal prestige, spiraling food prices, strikes, uncontrolled immigration, widespread corruption, a breakdown in law and order–by the time the eleventh Ramesses came to the throne, Egypt was on its knees.
Which of those conditions is NOT happening in our country today? Exactly none! The only difference between the period in ancient Egypt and today’s America is that our modern conditions are the result of deliberate government action by a regime that is trying its best to destroy the country from within.
Another piece of proof that human nature never changes.
Published in Group Writing
Are you sure it wasn’t the same for Egypt?
Man, I love Ricochet.
Great post.
As sure as one can be from 3,000 years away. All Egyptian kings’ prime duty as divine plus mortal was the preservation of “ma’at”, or order out of chaos. They could not risk the wrath of Amun by encouraging or tolerating disorder. They could be tyrants in their pursuit of order, but by this time world affairs made keeping order much more difficult.
Try the lessons from The Great Courses:
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/history-of-ancient-egypt
We learned sooooo many things we didn’t know before. Like why the breweries were located next to the bakeries (to share yeast). Prof. Brier also discusses how he actually mummified someone . . .
I too have been nurturing a minor obsession with ancient Egypt–in particular the archaeological angle. Toby Wilkinson is awesome. I read The World Beneath the Sands last year.
I once owned the multi-volume The Story of Civilization by Will Durant (and his wife Ariel on the last half or so). Volume 1 covers some of Egyptian history, for example.
To your point about the decline of Egypt: in eleven volumes, the Durants cover a lot of civilization rise and fall stories. It’s been a long time since I read these books, but I do remember that there were some common threads to the decline of many of the civilizations:
Sound familiar?
There might be a silver lining in the dark cloud. During the time period cited, Egypt managed to survive the Bronze Age Collapse. Many other civilizations(the Hittites and the Mycenaean Greeks, just to name two) did not.
The Egyptian History Podcast is free of charge on your favorite podcast app. Done by Dominic Perry from New Zealand. He’s got me calling it the Egyptian History Podcawst!
Toby Wilkinson commits the error that many leftists do, judging ancient civilizations by modern standards. Perry does not make that mistake.
Egypt took longer to die than almost any other nation but all nations died more or less from the same process. Our founders knew the reasons and tried to avoid it. If leaders gather enough power to become non accountable to the people they govern, they rot. It’s not on purpose, its that to get more stuff you need more power. Even folks on our side think we can fix it if we just have more power. If we’re allowed to win an election we have to undo huge chunks of the bureaucracies, some how come to grips with giant falling cost companies and return to constitutional governance, which is fundamentally ground up governance following fixed fairly simple law. It’s that or disintegrate, shrink in wealth and size, and down the road, perhaps, rediscover the secret.
I do not doubt the reasons for fall of Egypt and other civilizations, with this caveat. The reasons given for the fall is nothing more than the historian’s theory based upon the limited information available. Historians like everyone else have cognitive bias, e.g., Howard Zinn. So, we can and should question their conclusions as information becomes available.
Ancient history is especially problematic, because the information available is even more limited than recent history. Always continue to keep an open mind (to the extent that is even possible).
That said, I look forward to trying out this podcast. Thanks, @rushbabe49
I firmly believe God created mankind with imperfections that can only be overcome through His laws. The “7 deadly sins” encapsulate these weaknesses while the Bible lays down His laws and provides warnings through the history it tells. Believing won’t make us perfect but the guidance of our Father will help us in that direction. The left has chosen a different path. How many of the 10 commandments do they violate? Why does our country seem like it is imploding? Egypt, Rome, Greece, Sodom, Gomorrah…