We certainly have been called the new Rome, and we're trying our best to fit that characterization. A giant military complex, shifting the importance of domestic issues to international security for the pursuit of bureaucratic self-interest (namely oil and soil--for our global foothold--); we have declined as a nation since the Red Scare demolished our perceptions of what it means to be free. Steadily free-falling, almost joyously driving ourselves deep into the mire of personal and governmental debt, deriving a sick sense of justice in our pursuit of worldwide dominance--it almost makes hope a shallow concept, doesn't it?