"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" a book by the historian, Gibbon, provides five reasons for the decline of the Roman Empire. Number one, the undermining of the dignity and the sanctity of the home. Number two, higher and higher taxes and the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace. Number three, a mad craze for pleasures and sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, and more immoral. Number four, the building of great armaments when the real enemy was within: the decay of individual
responsibility. Number five, the decay of religion, fading into mere form, losing
touch with life, and losing power to guide the people.