I have decided to take a different approach to the whole perception of empire and its ruins to a more abstract level. Believe it or not, I have approached an area where I believe many have looked over (I can assume that the reasons are obvious depending on the area that comes to mind) and it cannot be more relevant: empires effects careers.
Careers on an empire are so dependent on two main factors: social class and gender. Gender distinctly generates the role, or in this case, the career in society and how it is perceived. I feel it is needless to repeat and reemphasize that women had a background yet impactful involvement towards fertility, religion, and slight politics during early civilization. Not to mention, there were very limited accessibility to move up in social class such as matrimony, or induction to the military on both genders. Since then, we have progressed tremendously on both factors, especially now in present-day America. However, the backlash to these improvements are still predominant: sexism, the gender wage-gap, religion, race, location, etc.
Regardless of these obvious factors that play into an empire’s economic manifest in its people with career making, I do believe that there is one group that has been oppressed severely without many realizing: the millennials. America and perhaps other countries as well, would emphasize on the millennials that a career is the most important decision in their life right above marriage, children, home mortgage, etc.
into thinking that we are something truly extraordinary when in reality, we are nothing more than the white lies we tell ourselves. J.M. Coetzee explores the aspect of self-deceptive thinking through a withdrawn and vacant character underneath the power of a manipulative oppressive empire in his novel Waiting for Barbarians. Coetzee's protagonist, the Magistrate, always believed himself to be the pleasure-loving identity of the Empire, the exact opposite of the cold steel-like Colonel Joll. As the
mash-up poem “Ruins of a great house” he argues that Donne is “selectively compassionate” (Miya, 2016). If we read the two poems together we see that the two poets engage in cleverly written conversation. While Donne states he is a man who cares for the collective society, Derek Walcott’s poem calls Donne out as a hypocrite, stating he is eurocentric and doesn’t care at all about the people who live and work on the colonies, or the slaves who have been forced into labor by the British Empire. Donne states
Legend was the name given to the concept of cruelty and brutality spread by the Spanish during the 14th and 15th century. This legend demonizes Spain and specifically the Spanish empire in an effort to harm the reputation of them. It was through this propaganda that made other countries look down upon the Spanish empire. The Black Legend threw discredit upon the rule
Empire Falls, written by Richard Russo, encompasses several concepts of the American identity and what it means to be an American. Russo focuses on the small town life in New England, illustrating a compelling story while narrating the lives of several different characters. While these characters seem to be different at the surface, they actually share several similarities. The characters of Empire Falls share the same outlook of life. Despite the American freedom they have, they will typically
harmonious whole. Dream as a setting was integral to the oeuvre of Jorge Luis Borges, a 20th century Argentine poet, essayist, and a short-story writer. For him writing itself was nothing more than “a guided dream”. In a short story entitled “The Circular Ruins” (1940) Borges explores the nature of human existence by questioning what is real and what is simulated. Here the author uses a dream as a point of intersection of disparate cultural beliefs, traditions, religions, and philosophical views – from Gnosticism
Attila and his Hunnic Empire
Who was Attila
Attila was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from Germany to the Ural River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his rule, he was one of the most fearsome enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. He invaded the Balkans twice and marched through Gaul (modern France) as far as Orléans before being defeated at the Battle of Châlons. He refrained from
In 1936, George Orwell, a prominent British novelist and police officer in lower Burma published an essay titled “Shooting an Elephant”. In this essay Orwell argues that imperialism ruins both the oppressor and the oppressed. Orwell furthers this claim with rhetorical devices to legitimize his work. Orwell uses sympathy to evoke feelings in the reader that are relatable, such as him working for something he does not believe in. Orwell also applies his perspective throughout the whole essay to
Browning's Love Among the Ruins
Among the failed and fallen works of man, the mundane, indeed profane, outcome of our history’s cyclic vastation, human affection may finally reign. This is the claim of Browning’s Love Among the Ruins, published in his monumental volume Men & Women, in 1855. Subtler emotions of kindliness and endearment between two persons only take the foreground of our affairs when the brazen dynamo of the days of kings and their mobs collapse in their mad, millenary mill-race
During the fall of the Roman Empire, the Church was able to stand tall and survive through the ruin. The power of Christianity prevailed as the glory of the city of Rome departed. The fall of Rome marked and epoch in the history of the west. Rome was no longer the city of Caesar, but it would now become known as the City of the Pope. The Catholic Church stepped in a filled the void left by the fall of Western Roman Empire.
Several factors led to the papacy in Rome becoming the center of power.
The best evidence so far for the existence of an American empire, despite denials to the contrary, is the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The persistent removal of restrictions and oversights on the domestic financial system of the US, combined with the decisions of individual firms, other governments and foreign financial organisations, culminated in the singe largest depreciation of assets and currency valuations in history, surpassing even the Great Depression in its extents.
The United States