In the late 1990's freshwater crabs were discovered below the ancient ruins leftover from the great Roman empire. While the scientific community was overjoyed by such an amazing find, the rest of the world took little notice. Who cared that a species of crustacean, usually found only in sea water, had managed to thrive for thousands of years amidst the infrastructures of Roman ruins? Who cared that these crabs were twice the normal size of their ancestors? Gigantism is one animal response to isolation, which explains why these crabs were so much larger than their seaworthy counterparts. Scientists worried that the construction of a new subway line would interfere with the crabs' usually quiet habitat, which could destroy what was believed to be a population of perhaps 1,000 giant crabs who for centuries had been left to their own evolutionary devices.
Gigantism could also explain the evolution of giant squid which contemporary fishermen were now capturing as their nets reached deeper into the most desolate parts of the ocean floor. In 2007, extremely credible photos of Scotland's famed Loch Ness Monster were released for the first time. Could the legend of Loch Ness be real? Might "Nessie" actually be a sea creature isolated from the rest of world for so many centuries that it had evolved into a 'giant' specimen of some long-fogotten dragon-like amphibian that eventually burrowed itself far below the surface of the Earth?
But, readers might ask, what has all this got to do with the political-social-economic turmoil going on around the world as a result of the collapse of the great United States?
In a way, the theory of Gigantism might also be applied to the United States of America, which grew into a global super power as it further isolated itself from the rest of the world. As the U.S.A. grew stronger and more power, its influence embraced the Earth and intimidated most other nations into submission to the U.S.A.'s 'ways'. American Presidents touted our 'involvement' in various wars and conflicts as being "in the best interests of the nation". Bureaucratic hoity-toities hid their deceptions, lies and distortions behind reasons of "national security" for not releasing information or telling the truth to the American people. The U.S.A. was, indeed, the 800-lb. gorilla around the world. Other nations feared us. Leaders of ally nations went along with whatever the U.S.A. bullied them into doing. And as the U.S.A. pounded its chest and roared its indignation at the world, most other nations - friends and foes alike - towed the line. The U.S.A. had become the schoolyard bully, and - as on any schoolyard playground - there was a growing underlying resentment of such hector.
Thomas Jefferson once said: "When all governments, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will....become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."
Such accurate vision was mind-boggling when one considers the American time-line:
It was one hundred fifteen years after Columbus discovered America before the first European settlers first arrived at Jamestown.
It took another 169 years for these new settlers to chase away the native American Indians and declare their independence from England.
And it was 232 years later before the most celebrated model of democracy finally collapsed as a result of a second American Revolution that resolutely destroyed the rich and famous, the powerful and influential, and the arrogant and wasteful that had decimated America's moral standards, political principles and family values.
Gigantism, greed, pomposity, and gluttony had forced America into capitulation. Just as the great Greek and Roman empires finally succumbed to their own historical faux pas' of debauchery. so did the United States. The irony of it was that it took the U.S.A. so much less time to crumble into such ruinous shame.
The great Acropolis and Parthenon still stood as ghosts of an ancient Greek empire that thrived for centuries. Crabs roamed freely among the ruins of the Coliseum and Circus Maximus, symbols of the greatness that once was Rome. Now, such great American icons as the U.S. Capitol Building and the Supreme Court lay crippled in a crumpled mass of destruction. Across America, thousands of 'corporate headquarters', government buildings and monoliths to man's egregious egoism lie shattered and in shambles. It was time for Americans - and the rest of the world - to pay attention to the rest of the world.
Even the lowly freshwater crab has a purpose on this Earth. And perhaps we could learn something about its survival as a democratic species where all are created equal, and all exist to serve the common good.