Moral decadence |
An otherwise invincible Roman Empire fell in the 5th century CE. The classical Maya's mighty civilisation collapsed, and so did the empires of Ad, Thamud, Pharaoh, biblical Sodom, Gomorrah, Plato's Atlantis and Homer's Troy. The fates of the medieval Khmer and Byzantine empires were no different. What elevates a nation to the pinnacles of power and glory? And what largely, despite all might, influence and resources, brings about the collapse? What is, if anything, common in all falls?
Would there have been a rise of the Roman Empire without mos maiorum, or the custom of ancestors; Ancient Greece's arete, or virtue; Ancient Egypt's ma'at, or goodness; the Ottoman Empire's Shariah, or Islamic law; Maya civilisation's covenants, or reciprocal obligations; Atlantis's Divine laws of Poseidon; Troy's xenia, or hospitality; Camelot's chivalric code; or Asgard's laws and oaths of the gods?
Throughout human history, moral orders have served as the invisible architecture binding otherwise irreconcilable identities into cohesive societies.........