The gist of what Confucius Said & The Fall of The Roman Empire :)

The top part of the above quote was Confucius' answer (about 2500 years ago) to one of his students' questions about the single most important thing one needs to learn and is the very gist of Confucius' teaching.

This means: Do not do to others what you don't want others to do to you.

The Fall of The Roman Empire:

There are multiple causes for the fall of the Roman Empire which ended around AD476. The main theme appears to be the decay from within. One can readily use the decay-from-within (especially within those in power) theory to explain the survival problems of many countries, dynasties, communities, businesses, families and individuals in the history of mankind.

Confucius' teaching repeatedly emphasizes building the thinking foundation and the value system of the self before one can effectively provide his/her service to the outside world. The bottom part of the above quote embodies that spirit.

This means: one must start with strengthening one's moral stance, then to harmonizing one's family, then to bringing prosperity to one's country, and then to bringing peace to the world at large.

The fall of the Roman Empire (and for that matter, the fall of many empires, governments, and communities) is presumably a lesson for us to learn - i.e., "history repeats itself". The question is: Does history repeat itself, right now, right inside us?

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