Constantinople and America

We have three sources to thank for knowledge about and from Ancient Rome and Greece after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.

These are the early monasteries of what would be the Roman Catholic Church who helped to keep literacy alive in Western Europe, the early Islamic Caliphates and their heavy investments in libraries, and the Eastern Roman Empire staying alive for over a millennium.

We know them as the Byzantine Empire, though they were never called that until several decades after the fall of Constantinople.

The big twist is that in 476, Roman civilization and all its glory was alive and well in the east with a thriving capital in Constantinople, even as that civilization died in the west.

Under Constantinople, aqueducts still brought fresh water to the people, trade and industry were alive and well, Roman law still thrived, and a powerful Roman military still protected the land. Learning and good living (by ancient standards anyway) still thrived in Byzantium.

Now, the Roman Empire had been split for quite some time before 476. In the immediate context, when it was formally split in half in 395 CE, it was designed to make it easier to respond to crises in both halves of the empire.

Mostly in the form of invasions.

But in the long run, this arrangement left the Western Roman Empire without the assets of the richer and more urbanized Eastern Roman Empire to prop it up, and so it was left bereft of resources it badly needed.

The systemic weaknesses of the Western Empire combined with constant invasions from migrating Germanic tribes (along with the Huns) caused it to die a violent and early death, while the Eastern Empire managed to survive for another millennium.

That is not to say that the Eastern Roman Empire remained the same. It adapted to the various situations it found itself in despite the fact it should have died multiple times before the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Make no mistake, the eastern remnant of the Roman Empire had to fight tooth and nail just to stay alive after 476 AD. Nevertheless, this remnant still left us several precious gifts.

The Hagia Sophia, or Church of Holy Wisdom, is one of the most awe-inspiring buildings in human history. It set the standard for churches all over Europe, standards that would not be met for hundreds of years.

The Hagia Sophia is a mosque in Istanbul today, so if it is safe, make sure to visit.

We in the Western world owe the basis of our civil law to Corpus Juris Civilis, or Code of Justinian. There was also the preservation of ancient knowledge the Romans left for us, knowledge that Christendom and the Islamic world would build on to make new discoveries and innovations.

This was along with the knowledge from the Sassanid Empire, the old rivals of the Romans, in the case of the Islamic world.

Both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires had catastrophically bad leaders during the 5th century CE. Both halves were hit by plague, faced constant invasions, and dealt with severe systematic corruption and revolts. Religious schisms made these situations much worse. What started as theological disputes with incredibly high stakes (eternal life or eternal damnation) usually got tangled up with political and economic problems. The schisms themselves were exasperated by personality conflicts and wounds inside these vicious, drawn-out disputes. Violence was a frequent outcome.

However, the Eastern Roman Empire was wealthier and more urbanized, had better farmland and trade routes, and was generally on a more solid footing. So once the Eastern Roman Empire got some solid leadership, it could last for another millennium.

In essence, the split made in 395 saved Roman civilization and all of the benefits we take for granted today.

The Point

The United States, as we know it today, may not survive the next four years under the Trump administration.

Trump has made it clear that he does not care if he destroys the standing of the United States as the world’s sole superpower so long as he can enact vengeance on his political opponents. His administration is filled with traitors prepared to sell this country piece by piece. Those members of the upcoming administration who are not traitors are people determined to destroy all that is good about America in the name of evil ideologies or spite.

But from where I am standing, the divisions are far more fundamental than that.

Like the Eastern Roman Empire, blue America has its series of systemic problems that must be tackled, mainly around housing and getting things built. Fortunately, this part of America has the capacity actually to fix its systematic problems, even if they feel quite overwhelming. And don’t ignore that blue America, if it were a separate country from red America, would undoubtedly be much wealthier, better educated, healthier, and more politically stable than red America.

Red America, on the other hand, has shown no interest in fixing the myriad problems that ail it at all levels. Investments taken for granted in blue America are still being fought for in red America.

Like the eastern half of the Empire, blue America is holding up both itself and red America with its wealth and knowledge.

It is clear that the upcoming Trump administration intends to use the federal government as a weapon against blue states. Using disaster aid to hold California hostage is just one example.

I want to give Liberal Librarian of the Establishment Bar credit for this idea because he posted about it on Bluesky, that blue states should take advantage of their economic heft to cause serious pain if Trump goes through with his threats.

California alone makes up 14 percent of America’s GDP. Add Oregon and Washington State, and that makes up close to 20 percent of America’s GDP, 18.2 percent to be exact.

And that is just the West Coast.

In this case, the West Coast would just have to shut down its ports for a few days to make a political point.

Add in other blue states on the East Coast, and they could grind the entire American economy to a screeching halt.

Blue America must act to protect itself and everything good about America.

I sincerely hope it does not come to this, but there are fewer and fewer options remaining.

What is good about America must be preserved.