The life of an average Roman in the 470's

Atlantean_Relic

If it is anything like Maine it is nice country. I remeber hearing how the were cutting swaths through Maine's forests for vacation housing. Made me cringe.

FourOfSwords

This is my very first posting on this forum so bear with me please...
There are many similarities, and just as many dissimilarities also, to the Roman Emire of the 470's.
Most importantly with regards to peak oil, as has already been stated is the difference in use and addiction to oil. Obvious.
As an aside America of today is more like the Roman Empire of the late 100's...although there is certainly no great leader like the last great emperor/philosopher Marcus Aurelius in sight in the near future of America.
There were three great trends operating during the 400s that greatly contributed to the Empire's demise.
1) Christianity adopted as the state religon. This had a very disrupting influence on society that had its 'pagan' beliefs assaulted from all sides. No real present day correlation in the US I can see.
2) Pressure from the 'barbarians'. Surprising to know, and not really well known, was that most of the Roman population was vastly Germanic in nature, due to 'carte blanche' immigration from neighboring Germanic peoples. The Roman army of the day( that kept the borders secure, and 'kept things together') was completely Germanized. There is a definate modern correlate to this: the completely porous borders in the US, and the resultant dissruption within the fabric of American society and it's values.
3)Economic stagnation and the individuals associated not caring for the Empire and the greater good of all. No need to point out the modern similarites today...they're rampant.
As for dissimilarities, Rome was not an industrialized society as we define it today, and one that did not rely on cheap plentiful oil to run, unless one equates modern oil with Roman slaves...
There was definately not the degree of enviromental damage in those times, as today, globally. Its all a matter of degree, there are 300,000,000+ Americans a vast horde no doubt, that any Roman Emperor could not possibly fathom.
Big business today has hijacked ALL important social and econimic decisions in any modern state, leaving them effectively emmasculated.
There are so many more similarities, they are just on a different scale.
As to address other comments by posters here, Canada truely does have vast spaces, many of them quite underpopulated by US or European standards...anyone visit Saskatchewan lately?
And quite a fair bit ofn it is just as good agriculturally(on a community scale, not agrobusiness scale) as anywhere in the US or Europe.
Well gotta go, instead of thinking in terms of the Roman Empire circa 470 AD. maybe we should be thinking Great Depression like the '30's except for decades!
Alex.

Tyler_JC

I live within 100 miles of tens of millions of people. There is no open space for the masses to move in to start their lives over again.

And even if millions of acres of high quality open land magically appeared. The masses would not use it.

Most people in the industrialized world can't farm. They would never be able to produce enough to survive. They just don't have the skill set or anyone they can learn the skills from.

Yes, there is great open spaces in Canada. But who is going to leave somewhere like Houston or LA or NYC to head off in to the Canadian wilderness??

Most people don't think like that. They would rather stay put and hope things improve. I doubt that everyone who follows that ideology will survive. But many of them will, and why not? The federal/state/local government will be around for years to come. Allowing millions to die off hurts your poll numbers. There will be some kind of aid to prevent mega death and Mad Max scenarios from happening untill a complete breakdown.

And a complete breakdown won't happen this decade. Or the next one. So you have a minimum of 14 years to prepare yourself and your family. Good luck.
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