There are always barbarians at the gate.

And I mean this, in the sense that the second we give less than our best, the second we let up.

It's not just that we allow the important things to fade.

No, we let the outside world infiltrate our existence.

In the history of civilizations by Will Durant,

he said something that I found incredibly interesting.

He's talking about the fall of the Assyrian Empire, and he says barbarism is always

around civilization, emit it and beneath it, ready to engulf it by arms or mass migration or

unchecked fertility. Barbarism is like the jungle. It never admits its defeat. It waits patiently to recover the

territory it has lost. See, in those civilizations, Durant speaks of, they knew they were always living

with a threat of an attack by outside forces that oppose it, knowing that calm and

quiet wasn't the rule, but the exception to the rule. And in its weakest moments, it crumbles.

In fact, Durand says societies are born stoic and they die Epicurean, right? Created from discipline,

but fall apart when people take what they have for granted, when pleasure and leisure become the standard. It's almost

like society is a submarine keeping out the ocean of human nature, constantly putting pressure

on it, right? And why does this matter? Well, this is what's interesting.

Compare it to this idea that I found in Jim Rohn's collection of lectures,

where he's talking about life's concessions.

He says even small compromises with regard to your goal matter.

Giving in, even a little bit, can be dangerous. Saying, oh, it's just one time,

is a wolf and sheep's clothing. Because it begins the process of the downfall. Plants a seed,

it cracks the door for those barbarians waiting patiently outside the gate.

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