The plan was to write a few words about the UK’s departure from Europe but that has, literally, been trumped by more recent events across ye olde pond, on Capitol Hill.

Images of a deluded, ragtag horde of Visigoths swarming down Pennsylvania Avenue and sweeping – almost tacitly permitted – into the very heart of US democracy were shocking to behold and do indeed bring to mind a more ancient event. Though quite what that guy from Jamiroquai was doing in the Senate chamber is anybody’s guess. Clearly, it wasn’t quite the first siege of Rome but there is something, shall we say, more than a little romanesque in the broader comparison, in that it brings the curtain down on a bravura performance of Caesar-like proportions by Donald Trump. All that’s missing are the wonky laurels and toga.

The Iron Age, the Kali Yuga, the Material Age – call it what you will – lasted 2400 years, which accounts for most of our recorded history, and it stands to reason that the centuries either side will feel the gravity of its pull. So perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised. However, parallels with the darkest phase of that age are there for whatever it is one does with parallels.

For many participants on Wednesday it may well constitute a high water mark in their lives; there was a lot of tribal squawking, chest thumping, intimidation and a manufactured sense of destiny, but in the end it utterly failed. And there’s the Trump presidency in a nutshell. In what was – hopefully – a last tantrum before his Rome burns down, the outgoing President Nero finally revealed himself in the fullness of his fiddling futility.

As the Trump term comes to its curious climax the lingering shadows of the last days of Rome are there to see: the scheming dynasty and duplicitous sycophants, the tsunami of lies, corruption and fakery, the inevitable collapse, and the Emperor in his new clothes at the dark heart of it all. What next for Donny, though? For such a monstrous zeppelin of narcissism you have to wonder if he can survive the deflation. His Hindenburg moment awaits. 

But to be too fixated on Trump as the pantomime dame/villain is an easy, vindictive distraction that draws the attention away from more serious issues. Firstly, Democrat complacency held the door open for him and indeed, they don’t appear to have done much about closing it in the intervening years. Joe Biden may come on like a blessed relief: the calm pilot who dropped his reading glasses but has somehow managed to regain control of the plane, but really, he’s 78 and his main selling point seems to be that he is not Trump. Is this the best the Democrats can manage? Is it enough? Well it was this time – just. Perhaps the whole convoluted system needs a radical overhaul.

Perversely, it may be argued that what Trump’s months and years of active goading and dog whistling have unwittingly done is to help draw out long-ingrained, low-vibration attitudes so that they can be finally processed in the light and then eventually disposed of. However, what is of greater concern than any individual catalyst is the likely extent and tenacity of such entrenched thinking around the world. It’s not a terribly pleasing prospect to contemplate, as we seem unable to let go of the past without having our noses rubbed in it first. Perhaps we had better keep the Kleenex handy because many of our institutions are built on dark foundations and won’t take kindly to proposed demolition.

In a sense, the gloves are off but at least we can see a clear example of the battle lines between the receding lower age and the coming new one. The clouds may continue to gather and darken but they’ll disperse in time, too. However, precisely what will happen en route and when is a whole other PhD. In the meantime, we breathe, try to stay above the fray and keep our eyes on the prize ’cos, like it or not, we’re all in it together. Meanwhile, somewhere in a basement in East London, Jamiroquai’s marketing team are surely considering their options.