Redtree Times

Imitatio  (2021)

A bitter wind blows through the country
A hard rain falls on the sea
If terror comes without a warning
There must be something we don’t see
What fire begets this fire?
Like torches thrown into the straw
If no one asks, then no one answers
That’s how every empire falls.

— R.B. Morris, That’s How Every Empire Falls

I had a post here about eight years ago featuring a song performed by John Prine, That’s How Every Empire Falls. In recent days, that particular post has garnered quite a few views. I sometimes find it interesting how the number of views for certain posts from the past jump upward with what is taking place in the world at any given moment.

For example, a post from 2011 titled Then Who Do We Shoot? which was about the film The Grapes of Wrath has spiked upward in recent weeks. The title of that post referred to a question in the film asked by the sharecropper Muley to the bank’s henchmen who were evicting him from his family farm. Muley wanted to know who could be held responsible and the bank guys gave him the big runaround, saying that nobody was to blame, that all the people involved were just obeying orders and doing their jobs. 

It seemed pertinent to this moment in time. As does the post with That’s How Every Empire Falls. Written in the early 2000’s by singer/songwriter R.B. Morris, it is a song that feels prophetic now, nearly 25 years later.

It is a simple but elegant song consisting of five stanzas, the first four describing some sort of moral compromise or failing. The first is man who is fleeing his past and the decisions he made that went against what he knew to be right. The second describes how religion is twisted in ways by men to serve their own purposes. The third is about alienation and estrangement within families and how love is often withheld. The fourth is about a man whose job requires him to do things that are morally wrong even though they may be legally correct, using the I’m Just Obeying Orders defense as justification for his actions.

The fifth and final stanza brings it all together though in the current environment it might be viewed as additional moral failing, as an indictment of the media’s failures in holding people’s feet to fire, opening the door for a growing normalization and acceptance of corrupt and criminal behavior across government and society. As the final lines say:

If no one asks, then no one answers
That’s how every empire falls.

It’s a powerful yet delicate song. Our democracy might also be viewed in the same way. It’s held together with little more than shared belief, so much so that accepting even a little moral sloppiness can allow it to come apart. When we ignore or shrug off the moral and ethical bankruptcy that is unveiling before us, we have all but thrown in the towel on our democracy.

That’s how every empire falls. 

Below is the song in its original form performed by R.B. Morris. I think its starkness is its power. The lyrics are below if you want to read along.

Caught a train from Alexandria
Just a broken man in flight
Running scared with his devils
Saying prayers all through the night
Oh but mercy can’t find him
Not in the shadows where he calls
Forsaking all his better angels
That’s how every empire falls

The bells ring out on Sunday morning
Like echoes from another time
All our innocence and yearning
and sense of wonder left behind
Oh gentle hearts remember
What was that story? Is it lost?
For when religion loses vision
That’s how every empire falls.

He toasts his wife and all his family
The providence he brought to bear
They raise their glasses in his honor
Although this union they don’t share
A man who lives among them
Was still a stranger to them all
For when the heart is never open
That’s how every empire falls

Padlock the door and board the windows
Put the people in the street
“It’s just my job,” he says “I’m sorry.”
And draws a check, goes home to eat
But at night he tells his woman
“I know I hide behind the laws.”
She says, “You’re only taking orders.”
That’s how every empire falls.

A bitter wind blows through the country
A hard rain falls on the sea
If terror comes without a warning
There must be something we don’t see
What fire begets this fire?
Like torches thrown into the straw
If no one asks, then no one answers
That’s how every empire falls.