A rare, must-read treasure I just discovered.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

Hudson & Landry was a team of morning DJs back in the sixties, and were popular nation-wide. Their skits were hilarious, and several became airplay hits.

One skit was not funny.

I just obtained this one amazing work, and transcribed it because it is VERY important. At the end I'll include a link where you can go to purchase it, if you like.

I think you will get chills reading this. I know I got chills listening to it.
---

Fate Of The Mightiest Nation
Hudson & Landry

Once upon a time there was a country that was very small, and on the whole very good. Its citizens were proud and independent, and self-reliant, and generally prosperous. They believed in freedom and justice and equality, but above all they had faith.

They had faith in their religion, their leaders, their country, and themselves. And of course they were ambitious. Being proud of their country they wanted to make it bigger.

First they conquered the savage tribes that hemmed them in. Then they fought innumerable wars on land and sea; with foreign powers to the east and west and south. They won almost all the battles they fought, and conquered foreign lands.

It took many generations, but at last the good little country was the richest and mightiest nation in the whole wide world. Admired, respected, envied, and feared by one and all.

"We must remain the mightiest nation," said its leaders, "so that we can ensure universal peace, and make everyone as prosperous and decent and civilized as we are."

At first, the mightiest nation was as good as its word. It constructed highways and buildings and pipelines and hygienic facilities all over the world. And for a while it even kept the peace!


More at link...


http://www.hudsonandlandry.com/vol3.html
-------------------------------
EDIT: COPYRIGHT. PLEASE POST ONLY 4
OR 5 PARAGRAPHS FROM THE COPYRIGHTED
NEWS SOURCE PER DU RULES.

[don954]

1. wot? and how is that relevant today?!

I see no comparison to that to the modern world..!
:sarcasm:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

5. Must be those rose-colored glasses you have on

They do seem to block quite a bit of the obvious, don't they!

:hi:

[Zhade]

15. Note the sarcasm tag.

:)

[lvx35]

2. Sometimes I hope America falls to the barbarians

just so I can be saved from the banality of the status quo.

[NMMNG]

3. It would appear that "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"

is being played out once again.

[pooja]

4. I have had this thought for a while now.

Rome was the greatest empire... we reached into the past and based many of our democratic ideals on the foundation that they laid.... but in the end corruption and greed overwhelmed and the whole Empire fell apart.

I had some pretty good teachers (thank God I left school before the doomed Child left Behind Act). I had a great history teacher. We spoke about this a lot and how you maintain a democracy or let it fall like the Romans did. This was in the Clinton yrs.

[China_cat]

9. And remember

Rome was christian when it fell.

[FredStembottom]

10. Ya know....I've neglected to remember that so clearly.....

....over the years.
Very interesting when looked at straight on.

:think:

[silverweb]

6. How apt.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

I wonder if there is any hope that we will yet learn and survive... or if, as some believe and I often fear myself, we have missed our last chance and failed to evolve for the final time.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

7. The barbarians are already at the gate

There are times I, for one, would almost welcome them- it may indeed be the only thing capable of truly waking the sheeple up. I keep thinking of the fate of our nation as depicted in V For Vendetta. Possibility or probability?

[silverweb]

8. Agreed.

Probability, I think. When disillusionment reaches critical mass.

[Joanne98]

11. I loved the domino part

[ArbustoBuster]

12. The barbarians aren't at the gate, they're already in the White House.

The question I wonder about is: Can we rebuild our country once the barbarians are gone?

[BrotherBuzz]

13. Here's an Art Hoppe 'blast from the past' that meshes well with your theme

I cut my political teeth reading Art Hoppe's satire, but a few months ago I stumbled upon this serious piece Art Hoppe wrote in 1971 (I guess this might be a good time and place to share) - The more things change, the more they remain the same.

To Root Against Your Country

Arthur Hoppe
March 1, 1971

The radio this morning said the Allied invasion of Laos had bogged down. Without thinking I nodded and said, "Good.''

And having said it, I realized the bitter truth: Now I root against my own country.

This is how far we have come in this hated and endless war. This is the nadir I have reached in this winter of my discontent. This is how close I border on treason: Now I root against my own country.

How frighteningly sad this is. My generation was raised to love our country and we loved it unthinkingly. We licked Hitler and Tojo and Mussolini. Those were our shining hours. Those were our days of faith.

They were evil: we were good. They told lies: we spoke the truth. Our cause was just, our purposes noble, and in victory we were magnanimous. What a wonderful country we were! I loved it so.

But now having descended down the torturous, lying, brutalizing years of this bloody war. I have come to the dank and lightless bottom of the well: I have come to root against the country that once I blindly loved.

<more>

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/07/22/ED92948.DTL

[Erechtheides]

14. Rome was Christian when it fell

This is true. That's not necessarily grounds for a valid comparison, however; before it became Christian, the Roman state religion was based on Etruscan religion, and worshipped the gods of their pantheon. Religion permeated every aspect of Roman life both before and after Constantine, and that old-time Roman religion hung on for a long time, particularly in the conservative senatorial classes.
Grounds for comparison lie in many other areas. We are like Rome in our conquest and our cultural ennui and our blind nationalism, and there are useful parallels to be drawn between the behavior of the Roman senate at the end of the Republic and our own. But part of what makes the current situation so dangerous is something fundamentally different: among our founding principles is the separation of church and state. This is something that neither the Roman Republic nor Athenian Democracy had to lose.
The tactics of the Neocons, and the threat represented by them, are nothing history hasn't seen before, except in this: they intend to dismantle something relatively new and beautiful - the separation of Church and State.

- Erechtheides
(Classics geek and first-time DU poster)

[berry]

17. Interesting!

Hi Erechtheides! Glad you're posting on DU. I think it does help to look at what happened to the Roman Empire (with all the necessary caveats you mention). Even when the parallels aren't perfect, they help me to look at what's happening here in new ways.

I am just finishing Gore Vidal's "Julian," a novel (I know, not straight history--and I do want to know how true this novel is to what is known about Julian Augustus and his times...). Julian was Constantine's grandson, who tried to reverse the Christianization of Rome, but was assassinated before he got very far along in his plans. (I actually haven't gotten to his death yet, but I cheated and read the last few pages--I knew it wasn't going to end well for him...)

Anyway, Vidal shows Julian as not trying to enforce the worship of the Etruscan and other gods, but trying to ensure that the worship of all gods would be tolerated. He (Vidal) suggests that Christianity's intolerance of other religions was something new in the world. I'm simplifying here (a lot). But maybe before Christianity became a political as well as religious threat to the old ways, there was less aggressive missionary zeal about religion? I don't know. I think Julian's time is interesting because when a new religion is replacing the old, the state/religion link becomes visible (people's comfort with the linkage evaporates when the religion is alien). I'm realizing as I write this that I know very little about this subject. But I do want to read more. Any suggestions for further reading?

I am still digesting your main point about separation of church and state in the here and now in America. My reading of "Julian" makes it even easier for me to understand why it's so important that we don't lose it, endangered as it already is...

Hope to see many more of your posts, now that you're here!

[badgerpup]

16. I remember these guys...

Used to have a couple of their records...yep, it was that long ago.
Right Off! and I can't remember the other one...

(fondly remembering...)

Count D: You think HE'S weird? Wait'll you meet Frank, Igor, and Little Sammy!
Bruiser Larue: Little Sammy...What's his bag?
Count D: You name it! He's got every hangup in the world!