The renowned British historian and academic, Edward Gibbon, published a collection of books in six volumes, titled: The decline and fall of the Edward Gibbon.
This brilliant analysis of the downfall of an entire civilization is regarded as the most influential research source into the topic to this day. Not bad for a set of books published in 1776 – 239 years ago!
One can therefore regard the conclusions reached by Gibbon as a fair warning for the South Africa of our time, where we are faced with the potential downfall of the Western civilization in our part of the world.
Gibbon described 6 attributes that Rome embodied towards its end:
- An overwhelming love of show and luxury – something which is not uncommon in our day and age. Keeping up with the neighbours, driving a more expensive 4×4, making sure that we visit the Klein Karoo Arts Festival every year…being visibly “in”…whether we can really afford it is another question altogether.
- An ever widening gap between rich and poor – there is just no comparison between the circumstances of the person in a squatter camp and of some businessmen, politicians and entertainers in our country – apart from sharing surnames, skin colour and language.
- An obsession with sports and a freakishness is the arts masquerading as creativity and originality – We are totally obsessed with sports. The question of Springbok performance against other national teams attract on average 7 times more opinionated statements from people than the question of how to achieve self determination or how to address unemployment. The arts – well, some weeks ago an artist smeared himself with menstrual blood, fell down on the pavement and shouted: “I need to be reborn!”. That, in my humble opinion, is not art, that is a religious identity crisis.
- A decline in morals, increase in divorce and decline in the institution of the family – with escalating teenage pregnancies, thousands of abortions, a outrageous rate of divorce, single parent families all around…need I say more?
- Economic deterioration resulting from the debasement of the currency, inflation, excessive taxation and over-regulation – the Rand is at an all-time low at R14 to the $ and another recession is dawning…
- An increased desire by the citizenry to live off the state – in South Africa we call it SASSA…the endless rows of people waiting for handouts, not even bothering to look for employment any more.
The six warning lights of the decline and fall of a civilization which Gibbon identified in 1776 already. We have serious problems…
By Daniel Lötter
Front National Dept Information
South Africa Today – South Africa News
