As part of a pilot show for the series “In Conversation,” Gore Vidal and Noam Chomsky were both asked the same question: “What’s important to you?” To this, Chomsky replied: “What’s important? Looking at the mirror in the morning and not being appalled at what I see.” Vidal, without skipping a beat, added: “For me it’s looking out the window and not being appalled at what I see.”

Both men were and are fervent opponents to the imperialist position assumed by the United States after World War II. Vidal in particular detested America’s intentions straight from its founding, as made clear by his historical novel series, “Empire.” He and Chomsky were together appalled by the excessive and arrogant nature of American dominance on the international stage, and they sought to highlight its flaws while, although rarely, applauding its successes.

This sort of contrarian attitude gives us a tool with which we can examine the history of our country in a better effort to mold a more conscious citizenry.

From the expansion of its economic control in its conflicts with the Barbary states to now spying on its own citizens and allies, writers such as Vidal and Chomsky could easily draw from various episodes in our history to make the case that the United States has always intended to be the “mistress of the world.”

Perhaps it was inevitable that America would assume the standard passed to her by the British Empire. With her rise to prominence, she took to the world stage with a persona of exceptionalism, which might or might not turn out to be a tragic flaw. In that coming-of-age she accepted all of the responsibilities, conflicts and propensities that every empire acquires.

Along with the enormous growth we Americans have enjoyed for the past 60 years, we have also succumbed to the plague of excess. We’ve “fallen in love with all the things that destroy men,” as Colin Ferrell nobly pronounces in the movie “Alexander.” Otherwise good people have become too enveloped by the excesses of dominance, and that has tainted the better nature of our republic.

Those on Vidal’s side, I imagine, look out the window upon this nation with a depressed countenance, breathing out a heavily mixed sigh of nostalgia and shame.

As an aside, there are people like Vidal who hastily compare our current circumstances to the Roman Empire as a helpful anecdote. The great misapprehension is the belief that our decline will be similar to the decline of the Romans — overindulgence, contracting other countries to do our bidding, obsession with entertainment, etc. Though it is easy to make side-by-side comparisons, America is substantively not Rome.

Even more so, is America even an empire? Can we make that claim? It would be safe, I think, to say that America is an “economic” empire.

One could write an entirely separate column on that matter. At the core of it, the Roman Empire constituted 21 percent of the world population at that time, and it acquired much of its holdings solely through military action rather than economic action.

Yet, Americans can find insight by analyzing the fall of that conflictingly virtuous and yet corrupt republic. An eloquent lesson, as Edward Gibbon noted, is that in the fall of Rome, “Propensity ripened the principle of decay.”

Americans are, I trust, aware of Rome’s demise, and smartly seek to prevent the same from happening to their great nation. However, there is an amorphous faction of “declinists” who look upon the past and anticipate the fall. Part of this is born out of nostalgia for the good and monumental achievements of the generations before.

While it is good to reflect upon our achievements (I have a particular disposition towards NASA), nostalgia can be dangerous. Constantly looking back upon better times does little to solve our current problems. Contextually, analyzing our history is completely different, and more useful, than to inhale the nostalgia.

What we are dealing with today is birthed out of those achievements of the past. America rose to claim the throne of the world and then acquired bad habits. Now, as the world catches up and passes her by, she must break those habits.

As Americans, it is only through examining how and why we came to power that we may prevent an untimely collapse.

In the first episode of the series “The Newsroom,” Jeff Daniels’ character says: “The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.”

Let’s wake up from the nostalgia and confront the problem at hand.