The West's Roman Empire Reckoning: Following its Path to Collapse, By Paul Walker
Vince Coyner's December 2023 American Thinker essay cuts to the bone: The West, heir to Rome's grandeur, is engineering its own sunset through self-loathing, complacency, and cultural infiltration. From the steam engine to satellites, Western innovation birthed the modern world, yet today's elites and youth despise their inheritance, inviting millions who scorn its values. We're tracing Rome's collapse "to a 't,'" overextension, economic rot, moral decay, and barbarian waves at the gates. Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall (1776) chronicled Rome's 5th-century crumble; 2025's headlines echo it with eerie precision. This isn't hyperbole, it's history rhyming, from Biden's 8M migrant surge to Europe's fertility freefall. Let's map the parallels, from aqueducts to asylum crises, and sound the alarm: Without a patriot's pivot, the West risks joining Rome in the ruins.
Rome's Fatal Formula: The Empire's Self-Sabotage
Rome didn't fall to one blow, but a cascade: Military overstretch drained coffers; economic stagnation bred bread-and-circus dependency; moral erosion, from Stoic virtue to hedonistic excess, hollowed elites; and unchecked migration flooded borders with unassimilated tribes, sparking civil strife. Gibbon pinned it on "softening," but modern scholars (e.g., Bryan Ward-Perkins' 2005 Fall of Rome) stress systemic rot: Tax hikes crushed trade; inflation gutted the denarius; and "barbarian" foederati (allied migrants) turned foes when loyalty frayed.
By 476 AD, the West's last emperor was a puppet; the East limped on. Ruins endure, Colosseum, aqueducts, but the spark? Extinguished by insiders who forgot what built it. Coyner's nod to Rome's "greatest" status? Spot-on: Its laws birthed the West's code; its roads, our highways. Yet prosperity poisoned: As Gibbon quipped, "The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness." In another word, hubris.
Modern Mirrors: The West's Echoes of Empire
Coyner's thesis, Western self-sabotage via fat complacency and hostile imports, mirrors Rome beat for beat.
Overextension and Military Malaise
Rome's legions guarded 4,500 miles of frontier; the West's global cop role,NATO, endless wars, mirrors it. U.S. defence spending? $886B (2025), 3.5% GDP, funding 800 bases worldwide. Result? Overstretch: Afghanistan's 2021 rout echoed Rome's 9 AD Teutoburg ambush. Europe? Ukraine aid ($200B+ since 2022) drains treasuries while borders bleed. X users seethe: "We police the world, ignore our walls — Rome 2.0."
Economic Entropy: From Bread to Bailouts
Rome's grain dole fed 200k idle mouths; the West's welfare web, $1T U.S. annually, breeds dependency. Inflation? Rome debased silver; we print trillions (Fed balance sheet: $7T post-COVID). Debt? U.S. at $35T (130% GDP); Italy's 140%. Fertility's fall (global 2.2, U.S. 1.62) shrinks workforces, Japan's GDP stagnates at 0.5%; Europe's pensions teeter. Coyner's inventions list? Western genius, now idled by DEI quotas (corporate spend: $7.5B, 2024) and green mandates (EV subsidies: $500M yearly, for elites).
Moral Decay: Self-Loathing as the New Stoicism
Rome's elites chased orgies while barbarians massed; the West's? "Woke" nihilism vilifies its legacy. CRT in 35 states' curricula frames founders as villains; statue topplings (130+ Confederates since 2020) ape Rome's iconoclasm. Utter's "abolition of man" ties in: Trans surgeries on minors (10k U.S., 2023) defy nature; "toxic masculinity" shrinks male participation (68%, 2024 low). X blasts: "We hate our history — Rome's elites did too."
The Barbarian Breach: Migration as the Final Flood
Rome's foederati swelled to 30% of legions, unvetted; the West's? 52M foreign-born U.S. (15.5%), 8M+ encounters under Biden. Europe: 745k UK net (2024), producing housing hell (rents +70%). Assimilation? Spotty, Germany's 99% Islamist terror cases (2024). Coyner's "hostile nations" import? Apt: Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gangs in Aurora, CO; Haitian strains in Springfield, OH. Hungary's Szijjártó (2025): "Migration = terror opportunity." Rome's Visigoths sacked; our "foederati" strain systems, delaying births (UK 1.41 fertility).
Why Rome's Path Fits Like a Toga
Coyner's right: The West's unparalleled output, democracy, technology, the internet, stems from Christian roots and Roman law. But prosperity's curse? Complacency. Like Rome's patricians, Western elites (Biden's "equity" push, Europe's open doors) invite the very forces eroding their edifice. Exact parallels in sequence, affluence to apathy, division to decline. Gibbon: "Corruption and decay from within." Today? Hillary Clinton's 2025 "white men" bogeyman; Musk's fertility apocalypse (2.2 global rate). X consensus: "West's Rome — fat, divided, done."
Reclaiming the Republic: A Western Revival Roadmap
Rome fell, but Byzantium endured 1,000 years — adapt or perish. For the West:
1.Patriotism Over Pathology: De Gaulle's line, love first, hate never. Fund history raw (Florida's 2025 primary sources cut complaints 30%). X's #WestIsBest (60k posts) builds pride.
2.Economic Reset: Slash debt, cap spending at 18% GDP (pre-1960 norm). Boost births: Hungary's tax exemptions upped fertility 10%; U.S. child credit to $7,200.
3.Moral Anchor: Defend faith, SCOTUS 2025 rulings shield schools. Counter "abolition": Ban minor transitions (20 states lead); celebrate incommensurability (men/women unrankable).
4.Border Iron: Trump's ICE surge (42% approval, 2025 poll), deport millions, vet rigorously. Europe: Hungary's fences = zero attacks.
5.Innovation Ignite: Deregulate, end DEI ($7.5B waste); fund R&D (Musk's Neuralink model).
Verdict: Rome Fell — Will We?
Coyner's elegy for Western genius rings prophetic: From pyramids to protons, we've peaked, but there are warnings of terminal trajectory, self-hate, migrant masses, moral mush mirroring Rome's ruin. Lewis's "men without chests" roam our streets; Musk's birth bust looms. Yet 2025's pivot, Trump's return, X's roar, offers a fork: Revival or rubble? Patriotism and nationalism are survival.
Rome's aqueducts stand — we can too, if we want it badly enough.
"The Decline and Fall of the Descendants of the Roman Empire
By Vince Coyner
I used to debate one of my high school teachers about culture. As a fan of Rome, I posited it was the greatest and most consequential civilization in human history. He queried me about why. It's laws, its size, its economy, its longevity? I suggested the clearest proof was the fact that there may be more Roman ruins remaining than from any ancient civilization in the world.
He disagreed, believing there were African empires whose cultures were equal if not superior to Rome's, the grandest of such being the Mali Empire in West Africa. Lasting from 1226 to 1670, its greatest king was Mansa Musa, who is sometimes said to be the richest man who ever lived.
He pressed me on others, stating that architecture and its survival might not be the best measure by which to measure a culture's greatness.
Wondering if he might be right, I looked a bit more into some of those other societies about which I knew less than Rome. There were the Incas, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, the Qin and Han Chinese, the Mongols, the Abbasid and Umayyad Caliphates, and the aforementioned Malian Empire. All were fascinating.
The Mongols had the largest landlocked empire in history but left very little in the way of architecture. There were the Qun and Han dynasties that controlled a quarter of the world's population some 2000 years ago and built the longest sections of China's Great Wall. The Abbasid caliphate, which is considered the Islamic Golden Age, was considered to be the most advanced society of its time in reference to things like science, astronomy, math, and medicine. The Egyptians not only left the Pyramids and Abu Simbel, but their papyrus was the earliest known paper. The Median and Achaemenid Empires preceding modern-day Iran left extraordinary ruins that go back 500 years before Christ.
Depending on how one wants to characterize them, there have been thousands of cultures, civilizations, and dynasties throughout human history. As much as we might know about them, it's likely there are even more about which we know nothing. Which brings me back to my original point: How does one measure what a great culture is? Is it the language they left, the ruins they left, or how much of the earth or her population that the culture controlled?
It's possible to make an argument for any one of those, but the reality is that, given the differences in time, geography, and populations, it's impossible to draw a hierarchical chart that defines "Greatness" with precision, particularly given the differences in what's left of them.
Nonetheless, I stand by the opinion of my 15-year-old self about Rome being the greatest civilization of the ancient world.
That being said, there's nothing in the ancient world to compare with what we have in the 21st century, a world that stands on the shoulders of Western culture. Given how the West is committing cultural suicide, it might be helpful to examine what that Western culture has produced.
Yes, the West has been cruel and barbaric at times, whether to its own people or because it sanctioned slavery and resulted in the bloodshed of native peoples in far-off lands. All those things are true. But none of them are unique to the West. Depravity is a mark that mankind shares across civilizations and has been constant from one degree or another across the space and time of human existence.
With that out of the way, back to Western civilization. It's brought the world democratic governance. It's brought the world individual liberty predicated on the notion of individual rights ordained by God, which laid the ground for limited government and capitalism. Together, those things set the stage for the greatest advancement in the condition of man in all human history.
From the moment most of the people on the planet today wake up until the moment they lay their heads down at night, almost everything they do or interact with is a result of Western civilization. Here is a short list of just some of the inventions Western civilization has produced:
Automobiles. Telephony. Mobile phones. MRI machines. Plastic. Nuclear power. Bessemer Process steelmaking. Gasoline. Vulcanized rubber. Television. Radio. Elevators. Computers. Flight. Rockets. Electric light. Mechanical reaper. Heart transplants. Vaccines. The Internet. Sewing machines. Skyscrapers. Railroads. The steam engine. Internal combustion engines. Electric washing machines. Barbed wire. Air conditioning. Satellites. Movies. Submarines. Microwaves. Radar. Lasers. Artificial knees and hips. Robots. The movable-type printing press. Antibiotics. Batteries. Refrigeration. And much more.
Then there are innovations that Western civilization has produced: Containerized shipping. DNA discovery and sequencing. Stock markets. Social media. GPS. Advanced farming. Google maps. Space travel. Blood transfusion. Constitutional Democracy. Individual freedom. Limited government. X-ray machines. The assembly line. Mars landers and solar system probes. And again, much more.
And then there's science. Of the approximately 800 Nobel Prizes that have been handed out since 1901 in fields like Physics, Chemistry, Economics & Medicine (not including Literature because it's so subjective and Peace, which, after giving one to Barack Obama, has about as much credibility as the UN), Europeans and their offshoots have won approximately 750, including 350 for the United States alone.
This is the world of the 21st century, and it's been built by the West. Aside from lost tribes or primitive societies that live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, there's virtually not a thing people around the world do on a daily basis that the West hasn't developed. The West won on the field of battle of ideas and power. To pretend otherwise is simply fiction.
But that which the West has built is under assault… mostly from within. From citizens who became fat, dumb, and happy during the prosperous times, to their inviting into their nations tens of millions of people who don't share their culture and, indeed, most of whom come from nations hostile to Western values.
Prosperity is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it has created a civilisation greater than anything in history. On the other hand, the beneficiaries of that prosperity have lost sight of the hard work, sacrifice, risk, and perseverance it takes to create prosperity, and how difficult it is to maintain that high standard.
As a result, many, if not most, Western citizens detest their own culture. They have tunnel vision, focused with a modern-day perspective on their forefathers' flaws while creating a fictional nirvana-like perspective on every other civilisation in history. Self-loathing is rampant.
It's one thing to tolerate or even encourage self-reflection in the pursuit of self-improvement. But that's not what the Left does. Like a 78-pound college student suffering from anorexia who looks in the mirror and sees herself as a overweight Western liberals see the sins of their fathers and the imperfections of their society and believe that their tunnel vision means the West is nothing but evil. Then, like the anorexic, they engage in self-sabotage; only, in this case, it's the culture they harm.
Culture and civilisation are fragile; they're hard to build and harder to maintain. It's particularly difficult when the youth of a nation despise their birthright, disrespect its legacy, and actively undermine its foundations. Combine that with elites who are the fountainhead from which that disdain arises, and you have a dire future.
The Left accuses Trump and the MAGA adherents of being racist nationalists. They're not. Charles de Gaulle perhaps said it best: "Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism is when hate for people other than your own comes first." America and the West will not survive the rest of this century if their citizens don't become patriots. Indeed, Osama bin Laden saw the writing on the wall: "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse." Self-loathing may communicate many things, but strength is not one of them.
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