The Last Days of Rome

Modern Fiddling

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it burnt to the ground in less than a week. As is the case with so many things nowadays no one’s quite sure where the affliction came from. Their wise and powerful emperor was only informed of it while he read a children’s book to a group of toddlers. But he didn’t rise to the occasion, Nero stared up at the camera and looked utterly perplexed, baffled, totally unsure of what to do next, for the first time in his career the blissfully unaware emperor looked about as human as any of the horrified people at home glued to their televisions. Those great high-rises that must have once inspired awe in the average passerby who looked up with his eager eyes and saw the personification of success, the clear ascension from the filth that must be abound around those eager eyes.

No one is quite sure where the fire started, but it must have been many years ago. We can point fingers or name names as we do in any crisis, security will be tightened at airports and you might be part of a random search more often, but we shouldn’t do that. Rather than preventing the fire from raging we should understand where the fire comes from, where someone’s unrequited rage might stem from, and how we might be able to make everyone look at the two towers of Rome and feel the same awe as the man with the eager eyes rather than disgust or hate, then maybe those towers can stand for more than just the epoch of success.

Maybe they could mean change.