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Decline Without Fall: Tolkien and the Long Defeat

stanfordreview.org · 893 words · saved by 1 readers

Imagine a man born in Rome in 366 AD, a full 110 years before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He would have matured, married, and died, never knowing the previous glories of Rome except from tales passed down from generations past. In his own generation, he would have watched political divisions form and foreign threats rise. He would have likely grown weary at the lavish excesses and personal incompetence of the emperor. In short, he would have known an entire life of nothing but decline. Yet, what is more, he would have likely never lived to see the fall. The bizarre catharsis afforded by the Fall of Rome would have been completely alien. Plato once remarked that secretly in his heart, every man longs for the end of the world. Whether or not this is true, there is something remarkably unsatisfying about experiencing all of the symptoms of impending collapse but never seeing the end. Frequently, political pundits and historians compare this era in American history to the late da

Table of Contents Imagine a man born in Rome in 366 AD, a full 110 years before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He would have matured, married, and died, never knowing the previous glories of Rome except from tales passed down from generations past. In his own generation, he would have watched political divisions form and foreign threats rise. He would have likely grown weary at the lavish excesses and personal incompetence of the emperor. In short, he would have known an entire life of nothing but decline. Yet, what is more, he would have likely never lived to see the fall. The bizarre

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