Peter Sullivan:Why are you always smiling?
Connor Rooney:'Cause it's all so f***in' hysterical.
-The Road to Perdition
Well, at least it’s not the year 68 AD. That year the Roman legions in Spain rebelled against the Emperor Nero, kicking off what became known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Nero killed himself, Galba was assassinated by Otho, Otho was assassinated by Vitellius, and Vitellius was executed by Vespasian, who took over the Empire. It’s all in Tacitus, The Histories, and it is a ripping yarn.
Then there came a time called the Crisis of the Third Century. There were at least 50 guys who were proclaimed Emperor, and none of them died happy, until Diocletian cleaned up the mess, and retired to a coastal retreat we now call Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Coast. His palace there is still standing.
The Fourteenth Century really sucked, with the Black Death, the Hundred Years’ War and the great Papal Schism, where there were two (and later three) Popes, all at the same time! And the Turks knocking on the eastern door of Europe as well.
The Seventeenth Century wasn’t too hot either— the English Civil War and the Thirty Years’ War were not pleasant for anyone. And the Puritans found out they weren’t very good at governing— Christmas was banned in England for a decade!
In each of these epochs, people were probably bitching and moaning about the end of the world. And all the politicians, all the popes, all the potentates, and all the peasants are dust. Sic transit gloria mundi. And somehow life went on.
Fast forward a bit. As we’re witnessing the slow demise of the Fat Man and the shabby remnants of his iteration of Republican Party, we can take some comfort. The ploys to retain political power played out in several states are so obvious that they cannot survive for long. The Fat Man will go sooner or later, either voted out, removed from office, 25th, or carried out of the White House in a body bag after One Burger Too Many. And another bit of balance will come into play.
And there lies a small bit of consolation from studying history— when things suck, we can look back a bit and see that things sucked worse earlier. And other people got through those sucky periods as well.
Keep smiling!