All Roads Lead to Rome - Not Really

    There is a new Pope, born and raised in Chicago. We have a new Pax Americana. That means that the world is being run, like the "world" was run by Rome over two thousand years ago, by the country in which we serve and live in, the United States of America.

    We are the greatest, the wealthiest, the most powerful. Our words and actions and monies have sway everywhere. The Romans ruled the known world back in the ancient days for a thousand years. However,  many peoples across the globe did not fall under their prevue back then, like the indigenous across the planet, or even the less civilized parts of Europe and the Middle East. While Rome was "in charge", there were still vast swaths of advanced civilizations like Japan, China, and India where people were not under its rule or affected much by it. Perhaps indirectly, both those Asian and other native cultures and societies managed to develop separately and independently of Roman influence.

    Likewise today in 2025, we are a mixed world of globalized powers, with strong oil-rich nations, other G8 or G7 powers linked to the U.S. but with their own sovereign interests, plus there are hundreds of zones outside of U.S. presence where they have their own cultures and rhythms external to the United States. Russia, Turkey, Ethiopia, on and on.

    We are not the end all be all. But we are a part of the world plans.

    And now we have a home grown American in the Vatican, which leads and guides the worldwide "universal" church.

    Where do all roads lead to? Not necessarily Rome or Washington D.C. or New York or London or Paris, or Beijing or Hong Kong, Tokyo, or New Delhi.

    We share the world and try to influence as we may.

    How do we lead or rule, or how do we share the planet?

    It's an us thing. Not, U.S. alone or just the most powerful. 

    All of us make up an intense, diverse, growing world of people and things.