I received an e-mail yesterday that put a lot into perspective. I have been thinking about exactly the things in here, but didn't realize there was already a theory about it.
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At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinborough) had this to say about "The Fall of The Athenian Republic" some 2,000 years prior.
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent
Presidential election: Population of counties won by:
Gore=127 million
Bush=143 million
Square miles of land won by:
Gore=580,000
Bush=2,2427,000
States won by:
Gore=19
Bush=29
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore=13.2
Bush=2.1
Professor Olson adds:
"In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly
encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare..."
Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the "complacency and "apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy; with some 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.
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I also liked the e-mail signature from this person (whom I did not know)
“ Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.” Thomas Jefferson
2 comments:
The upside to this cautionary email/blog is that we are already past the 200 year mark, so we are on the upside of the grading curve, as it were. If the average length of the "great societies" is 200 years, then we have already outlasted expectations. And we aren't even in the last declining part quite yet. There is still time to turn it around. And it appears to me, that according to the stages involved, we must turn back from complacency to abundance.
Also, is the author saying that we MUST become a dictatorship in order to recover, or that all those societies became ripe for dictatorship because they collapsed?
And if the title of dictator is up for grabs, might I suggest myself? I would be a benevolent dictator. Mostly.
-k
I happen to be in agreement with you. The theory is just that, a theory, and though I tend to agree with it, I have fervent hope that we are going to be the exception to the rule. We have passed the 200 year mark, but I don't think it was meant to be a hard and fast rule.
What we are doing, however, is waking up to the fact that the most dangerous vote is one which increases your dependancy. Reading Colleen McCollaugh (sp?) books on Rome (starting with "The First Man in Rome") were very illuminating on exactly this phenominon. Rome didn't make it.
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