The Trump phenomenon, explained

The historian M. I. Rostovtzeff (1870-1952) on the fall of Rome:

What happened was a slow and gradual change, a shifting of values in the consciousness of men. What seemed to be all-important to a Greek of the classical or Hellenistic period, or to an educated Roman of the time of the Republic and of the Early Empire, was no longer regarded as vital by the majority of men who lived in the late Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages. They had their own notion of what was important, and most of what was essential in the classical period among the constituent parts of ancient civilization was discarded by them as futile and often detrimental. Since our point of view is more or less that of the classical peoples, we regard such an attitude of mind as a relapse into "barbarism," which in fact it is not....

From "The Decay of the Ancient World and Its Economic Explanations" by M. I. Rostovtzeff. In The Fall of Rome: Can It Be Explained? edited by Mortimer Chambers.

And again:

Another aspect of the same phenomenon is the development of a new mentality among the masses of the population. It was the mentality of the lower classes, based exclusively on religion and not only indifferent but hostile to the intellectual achievements of the higher classes. This new attitude of mind gradually dominated the upper classes, or at least the larger part of them.

From "The Oriental Despotism" by M. I. Rostovtzeff. In The Fall of Rome: Can It Be Explained? edited by Mortimer Chambers. From the concluding passage of The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire.


In his prefacing remarks to the latter essay, Mortimer Chambers writes:

... he [Rostovtzeff] attributes the breakdown of the Empire to an unfortunate transformation of its social structure. A common criticism of this theory is that it was probably suggested to him by his own tragic experience at having to leave Russia at the time of the Revolution.

Okay. So, worst case, the "shifting of values" and the "new mentality" tell the story not of the fall of civilization, but rather of the rise of Revolution with a capital "R". The kind of revolution that actually comes about, with guns and all.