Barbarians at the gates.

One of those telling moments in history was August 25, 410 AD. That morning the citizens of Rome looked out at the Visigoth forces of Alaric as defenses failed and thousands of Visigoths poured though the breach. Thus began the sack of Rome.  For three days the Visigoths plundered the former capital of the Roman Empire. Rome would never be the same again. It was the End of Western Civilization.

Old symbols come crashing down.

                                                                                                                      

The Visigoths had already taken 2-1/2 tons of gold, 15 tons of silver, thousands of fabric, and 2-1/2 tons of pepper during a siege two years earlier. Barbarian slaves had been freed, many joining Alaric's army. On August 25, Rome's defenses failed completely. A visiting monk named Pelagius commented,

This dismal calamity is but just over, and you yourself are a witness to how Rome that commanded the world was astonished at the alarm of the Gothic trumpet, when that barbarous and victorious nation stormed her walls, and made her way through the breach. Where were then the privileges of birth, and the distinctions of quality? Were not all ranks and degrees leveled at that time and promiscuously huddled together? Every house was then a scene of misery, and equally filled with grief and confusion. The slave and the man of quality were in the same circumstances, and everywhere the terror of death and slaughter was the same, unless we may say the fright made the greatest impression on those who had the greatest interest in living.

                        

Taking what they want to.

Fast-forward to here and now. In the last two weeks I have received e-mails from former co-workers about conditions at LLNL.  One had the title, "It's all over at the lab - we lost." In the other, a friend who had been a steadfast optimist and unwavering in his loyalty to the Lab wrote, "On the personal side, working at LLNL has become very difficult for me. " Both authors are witnessing the storming of the gates by barbarians, the city collapsing into dust.

LLNL used to be a temple of science, where a can-do attitude created technical miracles - miniaturizing the nuclear bomb, creating a new form of ramjet engine, mapping the human genome, pushing the boundaries for computation to unheard-of levels. Now science is taking a back seat to the Woke Culture - it's Political Correctness embracing Marxism, then becoming infected with rabies. The Lab has abandoned the notion of merit and now awards "Equity Raises" to those employees they like. One can easily guess that "like" is someone whose mind has been soaked, scrubbed, then rinsed in Woke theorem.  Not liked folks get down-trodden. There are even articles in the Official LLNL weekly newspaper,  Newsline, about the new way to think.

There is no chance of fighting this trend.  Instead of doing science, they now focus on rooting out those they believe have White Privilege and how LGBTQ+ culture must be embraced by all. Any who disagrees will be suppressed -- unpleasantly. No grad student is going to want to work at Livermore. Not when you have to constantly look over your shoulder. One false accusation and you can kiss your clearance, your research, your entire career goodbye.  Without the inflow of new talent the brain-drain will go critical, technologies will be lost, possibly forever. And that brings an end to America's ability to push ahead, overcome challenges from other nation.

We've lost. Game over.  LLNL is no longer worthy of being called a National Laboratory.