I’d like to say that the modern West is “navigating” its way through a life among the ruins, but instead it is wading through the muck of its own making and not blinking an eyelid to the stench of its own waste.

Too harsh? Perhaps. But it’s not as if we weren’t warned.

In the words of historian, Livy:

‘The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through, to avoid.’

History is right in front of us, not just behind us.

The past is our greatest teacher, yet modernity dazzles us with the latest in gadgets, clothing, lifestyles. We yearn for instant gratification, and technology feeds the beast with ever improved models of the things we tell ourselves are crucial to fulfil our entitled lives.

We are told that history is dead, the present is now, and the future awaits. But how does one navigate through the present to reach decisions on the future without looking to the past for clues as to what works and doesn’t?

So outdated! So old school! I hear it over and over.

Yet, look where we are now. In a pit of despair over how to address the rottenness which Livy referred to - the ‘base things,’ which need to be avoided.

Progressives love to gloat about advancements and unlocking the shackles of the past and of tradition, but all that I see is an Australia, and the entire Western world, being jettisoned back to the times of a complete societal breakdown.

We are akin to where Rome was at the time of the Social Wars from 91 – 87 BC, prior to when Sulla was made dictator of Rome in 81 BC with the aim to restore the Republic, and order from the chaos which had enveloped Rome since the revolutionary and violent time of the Gracchi around 133 BC.

The difference with then and now is that the one looming dictatorial figure is a global conglomerate that will control us all. No barriers, no borders. All in together according to the Great Reset model.

Livy (yes, him again) puts it best when he urges his readers to:

‘…trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.’

We are owned by excess. We serve those who deliver it on a plate.

When will we become strong enough to resist the decaying of what is good and honourable?

Rome was founded upon an idea. Aeneas made the journey across the seas from the ruins of Troy and founded this new nation, which was destined to become the greatest empire the world has ever seen.

Ideas are powerful, and in the hands of great writers and poets, can change the course of time. Virgil is considered Rome’s premier poet. Born during the turbulent end of the Roman Republic, he bore witness to the ruins around him. He captures a truth that we can bear witness to in our own time:

‘…a world in ruins…

For right and wrong change places; everywhere

So many wars, so many shapes of crime

Confront us; no due honor attends the plow.

The fields, bereft of tillers, are all unkempt…

…throughout the world

Impious War is raging.’

Civilisations don’t just collapse unaided. The precursor is the wearing down firstly of individuals, then groups, towns, and cities. They are the aggregate of civil society.

It is individuals, one by one, who will lead us out of the ruins which we have laid bare around us, through our own apathy and ignorance.