empiricals

It feels weird being back in homework-writing-papers-oh-crap-this-is-due-in-three-days, and of course there is the usual daily grind clownery, the fine balance of margin walking, of sorting between what matters and what is pointless. Attempting to be decent and kind in the face of the small-minded and borderline insane which is hard but ultimately so much better.

Empire's been on my mind, what with studying ancient Rome and the republic giving way to chaos and then emperor. The trappings of empire, its theater of arrogance and populism, of games of power and no one wanting to rock the boat at the risk of losing life and limb and comfort, of prudery and decadence, of occupation and obliteration, it hits close to home, this bread and circuses and swords. I've never read Gibbon, it's easy to project one's realities onto things of old but so much reverberates, it's been stuck in there bouncing around.