Post by MO on Oct 26, 2003 22:55:25 GMT -5
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the voters always vote for the candidates promising the most from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses due to loose fiscal policy always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations have lasted 200 years. They go 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 selfishness
From selfishness to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependency
And from dependency back again into bondage.
Alexander Tytler, writing about the Athenian Republic some 2000 years earlier.
From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to selfishness
From selfishness to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependency
And from dependency back again into bondage.
Alexander Tytler, writing about the Athenian Republic some 2000 years earlier.
