‘But Placidia…’
‘Power without responsibility,’ insisted Placidia, refusing to allow Myles to interrupt. ‘Just like Roman senators before their empire collapsed — decadence comes before decline.’
‘They’ll trace how the files were uploaded — just as Helen found the files on my computer were from here,’ said Myles.
‘I’ve found ways to do it differently now. There are better ways to hide the IP addresses. It’ll look as though the Senators browsed the web and downloaded the files themselves.’
Myles still couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘Look, Placidia… I know you have a…a very unique sense of right and wrong. But what can be right about putting sexual images of children onto the computers of Senators? Some of them are good men and women. If they’re found with child porn they’ll be locked up.’
‘You were locked up because of what I put on your computer and, believe me, it saved your life,’ she said, smiling. ‘It’s true, Myles. Putting child porn on Senators’ PCs will save lives too.’
‘Someone’s trying to kill the Senators?’
‘No. Other people’s lives. The lives of African people, who die every day. The reputations of a few Senators for thousands of lives. African lives — I know they count for a lot less than American lives…’
‘But, Placidia, that’s…just wrong.’ Myles was struggling. He tried to define exactly what was bad about Placidia’s ‘Senate Dump’ programme: ‘OK. Let’s just suppose that this plan works,’ he said. ‘The fifty or so Senators who voted to keep immigrants out of their country get discovered with child porn on their computers. They have to resign and new ones come in. It doesn’t mean new laws will get passed.’
‘No, but it makes it more likely.’
‘What would you say to a Senator who worked really hard for the people in his state? He’s done nothing wrong, no scandal, nothing. Then he has to resign over child pornography.’
Placidia raised her chin, looking unashamed. ‘I’d say, he shouldn’t vote to condemn many thousands, perhaps millions of people, to their deaths, by denying them the right to settle in America. Sometimes you have to break a rule to save the system of rules — to save the principles which made Western civilisation.’
Myles shook his head. He just couldn’t accept her logic. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and tried to exhale deeply. Fury and long-buried emotions made it hard for him to focus.
Placidia looked at him, concerned. Her voice became quiet again. ‘Myles, there’s more at stake here than even the lives of thousands of people who want to become US citizens. Do you know what happened to the Empire’s population when Rome collapsed?’
Myles looked blank — he didn’t know.
‘The population collapsed, too,’ explained Placidia. ‘To just one-twentieth of what it had been. Nineteen out of every twenty people just couldn’t survive any more. And the end of the Roman Empire brought about the Dark Ages. Knowledge was thrown away,’ she said, using her hands to emphasise the point. ‘Cities disintegrated. Life everywhere became more basic, more brutal…’
‘And you think that’s about to happen again now?’
‘It’s happening already. Myles, I did a lot of research to find out what brought down the Roman Empire.’
Myles nodded. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I tried to get hold of your thesis, but couldn’t.’
‘There’ll be a reason for that.’ She smiled. ‘Look at this,’ she said, turning to the computer and double-clicking on another icon. This time a home-made video appeared. It started with Placidia walking around some Roman ruins, then faded to black as nine words appeared on the screen:
The Decline of America and the Fall of Rome.
Myles peered intently at the screen. It was another of Placidia’s public broadcasts — half history lesson, half taunting terrorist propaganda. ‘Is this going to be released soon?’ he asked.
‘In a few days,’ said Placidia, her eyes fixed on the screen.
The words faded and the picture returned. Placidia was stepping between fallen stone columns in an abandoned Roman town. Apart from some weeds which had taken over the collapsed architecture, she was the only living thing in the picture. She began speaking to the camera. ‘When we look back at history, we try to explain what happened,’ she said. ‘Rarely do we ask how things could have been different. The people who went through the amazing events of the past were often surprised by them. Most people thought things would continue as they always had done. Then, as now, most big changes were only visible with hindsight — after they happened.’
Placidia turned to Myles for approval. Myles was too engrossed to return her glance. He kept watching the video.
The Placidia on the screen was opening her arms, pointing at the collapsed architecture around her. ‘This used to be a vibrant Roman city,’ she explained. ‘It had commerce and government. It could afford great monuments. The people had baths and public games. It could even afford to send its sons off as soldiers to fight in the Middle East. Rome — like modern America — had the greatest army on earth.’
The video cut to some graffiti on one of the Roman stones. Placidia’s voice continued as voiceover: ‘None of these Romans expected their civilisation to collapse. But collapse it did, suddenly and completely.’
Then Placidia spoke squarely to the camera. ‘I’m warning you that America could very soon face the same fate.’
The picture cut to a graph labelled ‘US Share of World Trade’. The line peaked in the late 1960s at just over half, then tumbled down in the subsequent years. ‘Just like the Romans, you are losing your dominance of world trade…’ came the voiceover.
A second graph labelled ‘US Social Mobility’ appeared. Again, it showed a clear downward trend. ‘The Roman Emperor Diocletian passed laws which made men take on the same occupations as their fathers,’ the voiceover continued. ‘In modern America, it is college fees and the who-you-know economy which mean the best jobs stay in the same families more than ever.’
Next came a graphic labelled ‘US — real median income’. It was a bumpy flat line, declining slightly since the late 1970s. ‘Rome, just like modern America, used to say it was getting richer every year. But towards the end, only the rich got richer in Rome, just like in modern America. To buy a home and a car and their groceries, most Americans now need to work harder than they used to thirty or forty years ago. And it’s going to get worse, not better…’
The video cut back to Placidia, walking pensively through the Roman ruins. ‘Some people think that Rome was brought down by lead poisoning or the plague, or by barbarians rampaging through the streets of the capital. Some say it was a costly war with the Persians in Mesopotamia — modern-day Iraq and Syria. Some blame the decision to make Christianity its official state religion, because until just a few years before it fell, the Romans had been careful to separate Church and State…’
Then Placidia spoke straight to the camera. ‘But what really changed was its people. Roman people became different. Rome was built by citizens who were prepared to sacrifice everything for their empire. By the time it collapsed, crowds were pleading for permission to eat human flesh. The Romans had become cruel and selfish. Some said they deserved to die out…’
Pictures of great Roman buildings appeared like a series of holiday photographs. ‘It is my belief that most Romans would have become better people if they knew what was coming to them,’ she speculated. ‘And the same is true of America today. Most Americans are addicted to things they don’t need — huge houses, holidays, take-away food. And they’re determined to keep out non-Americans who are prepared to work really hard for just a small part of what Americans can enjoy. You’re not even helping us enjoy an American way of life in Africa. Just condemning us to death. And what you don’t realise is that really you’re condemning yourselves to death.’