History Repeating Itself
An eerie picture...
This essay is for Day 1 of 7 in a 7-day Tech Progressive Writing Challenge in collaboration with @grant_nissly and @joinbuild_ as well as the build_ community (join the Discord).
It's eerie at times how history may repeat. It may not actually play out this way, but it's an eerily similar picture at the moment from one perspective. Not a perfect analogy, for sure, but here it goes:
Imagine the Ancient Mediterranean World of 1800 years ago, around the early-to-mid 200s AD. There has previously been great pandemic (Antonine Plague) that wiped out significant parts of the Roman World. The "Empire" is fractured, prone to internal divisions and insurrections of "sword-wielding" groups, and also experiencing a leadership crisis, rising inflation and increased food shortages, rising inequalities and disharmony among citizenry.
The "Empire" is also overstretched and increasingly in debt from costs of maintaining legions everywhere. Legions and outposts stuck in deep Germanic forests decide to withdraw or find themselves in precarious positions after decades of expeditions. In the East, a new "dynasty" (Sassanids) with distinct "narrative" and ideology rises from the ashes of the Empire's previous rival (Parthians), beginning centuries of new rivalry in which the "Empire" and the "Eastern Dynasty" jostle for position, try to win over those in the middle (e.g. Armenia), and oftentimes come to a stalemate.
The Empire is tired, divided, and over-extended. The old "narrative" does not work anymore and the citizenry has become more and more disillusioned.
Then, within the Empire, previously persecuted and underground voices are beginning to be heard, and though it's a long way until a Constantine makes it fully mainstream, this new "narrative" is beginning to pick up steam. For those in the Empire and even beyond its borders, this new "narrative" offers a breath of fresh air from the divisions, violence, inequality, inflation, and general dissatisfaction.
Prophets and community leaders have been actively building this community, and it gets bigger and bigger. Politicians in the Empire's senate and even the Caesars and Augustuses begin to take notice, initially through violent suppression without truly understanding it, but as the new narrative's influence grows, certain members of the Empire's elite begin to take notice and champion it. And over time, this new "narrative" becomes the new legitimate one.
The Empire's structure could not be saved over time, but new institutions have already risen in the form of a Papacy and Churches surrounded by a decentralized "holy" realm. And over time, this new "narrative" itself would eventually find itself forked into multiple versions, an Orthodox one, a Nestorian one, and a Catholic one, among others.
Ok...at some point, this analogy breaks down, as none of us wish to see another Dark Ages. So this analogy is imperfect, as with any historical analogies. But, substitute the "Empire" for US (or G-7 or traditional "West"), the "Eastern Dynasty" for PRC, "Armenia" for SE Asia or Latin America, Germania for Afghanistan or Iraq, and Christianity "new narrative" for crypto, and it's arguably a pretty eerie picture.
Side-note: Also substitute Britannia/Arabia of 200 AD for Africa...where some serious growth and innovation would come centuries later.