#john glubb

[jessica-marie-baumgartner]

“The heroes of declining nations are always the same—the athlete, the singer or the actor.”

― John Bagot Glubb, The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival

[mollitheia]

It often appears in individuals that the head and the heart are natural rivals. The brilliant but cynical intellectual appears at the opposite end of the spectrum from the emotional self-sacrifice of the hero or the martyr. Yet there are times when the perhaps unsophisticated self-dedication of the hero is more essential than the sarcasms of the clever.

Sir John Bagot Glubb, Fate of Empires (1976)

[der-unverantwortliche]

It is of interest to note that decadence is the disintegration of a system, not of its individual members. The habits of the members of the community have been corrupted by the enjoyment of too much money and too much power for too long a period. The result has been, in the framework of their national life, to make them selfish and idle. A community of selfish and idle people declines, internal quarrels develop in the division of its dwindling wealth, and pessimism follows, which some of them endeavour to drown in sensuality or frivolity. In their own surroundings, they are unable to redirect their thoughts and their energies into new channels.

But when individual members of such a society emigrate into entirely new surroundings, they do not remain conspicuously decadent, pessimistic or immoral among the inhabitants of their new homeland. Once enabled to break away from their old channels of thought, and after a short period of readjustment, they become normal citizens of their adopted countries. Some of them, in the second and third generations, may attain pre-eminence and leadership in their new communities.

This seems to prove that the decline of any nation does not undermine the energies or the basic character of its members. Nor does the decadence of a number of such nations permanently impoverish the human race. Decadence is both mental and moral deterioration, produced by the slow decline of the community from which its members cannot escape, as long as they remain in their old surroundings. 

John Glubb, “The Fate of Empires”

[crowns-of-violets-and-roses]

The Palestinians have been treated with so much cruelty and injustice that it is not surprising that they should develop a persecution complex.

Much like it isn’t paranoia if they’re really out to get you I don’t think you can call a reaction to actually being persecuted a persecution complex

[mollitheia]

Decadence is a moral and spiritual disease resulting from too long a period of wealth and power, producing cynicism, decline of religion, pessimism and frivolity. The citizens of such a nation will no longer make an effort to save themselves, because they are not convinced that anything in life is worth saving.

Sir John Bagot Glubb, Fate of Empires (1976)

[mollitheia]

Some of the greatest saints in history lived in times of national decadence, raising the banner of duty and service against the flood of depravity and despair. In this manner, at the height of vice and frivolity the seeds of religious revival are quietly sown. After, perhaps, several generations of suffering, the impoverished nation has been purged of its selfishness and its love of money, religion regains its sway and a new era sets in.

Sir John Bagot Glubb, Fate of Empires (1976)

[mollitheia]

History seems to indicate that great nations do not normally disarm from motives of conscience, but owing to the weakening of a sense of duty in the citizens, and the increase in selfishness and the desire for wealth and ease.

Sir John Bagot Glubb, Fate of Empires (1976)

[mollitheia]

Everything that is occurring around us has happened again and again before.

Sir John Bagot Glubb, Fate of Empires (1976)