What the Hell Are We Doing?

It's long been said that Nero fiddled as Rome burned. That story has persisted since Rome was nearly destroyed by a great fire in 64 A.D., and it leads modern people to believe that the extremely cruel emperor stood on the balcony of his palace and played a violin backlit by the flames of the city and accompanied by the screams of his citizenry. We now know it was all myth.Yet, regardless of the historical truth, "fiddling while Rome burns," is part of the American lexicon that's come to mean be