Death of Democracies

[Hagar]

I stumbled across this profound quote of Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747-1813), a Scottish advocate, writer, and historian.  I was startled by the accuracy of his words, as they describe the "life" of a democracy (America).  This, in a nutshell, validates the old saying, Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.  

I'll preface this by telling you his studies concluded, on average, democracies last two hundred years.

"A democracy is always temporary in nature.. It simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  A democracy will exist up until the time it's voters discover 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, always followed by a dictatorship."

And here is his sequence of events:

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 apathy.

From apathy to dependence.

From dependence to bondage.

To me, that's a record of our path.  Jmo, we're in the selfishness stage, very close to apathy.

[baddog]

26 minutes ago, REBgp said:

I stumbled across this profound quote of Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747-1813), a Scottish advocate, writer, and historian.  I was startled by the accuracy of his words, as they describe the "life" of a democracy (America).  This, in a nutshell, validates the old saying, Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.  

I'll preface this by telling you his studies concluded, on average, democracies last two hundred years.

"A democracy is always temporary in nature.. It simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  A democracy will exist up until the time it's voters discover 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, always followed by a dictatorship."

And here is his sequence of events:

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 apathy.

From apathy to dependence.

From dependence to bondage.

To me, that's a record of our path.  Jmo, we're in the selfishness stage, very close to apathy.

He was around the time of our founding fathers. What great minds and vision they had back then. We have none today in our government that would make a pimple on any of their arses. Why is that?

[Hagar]

5 minutes ago, baddog said:

He was around the time of our founding fathers. What great minds and vision they had back then. We have none today in our government that would make a pimple on any of their arses. Why is that?

Baddog, your post is as profound as Tytler's.  And my response to your question is, I don't have a clue.  Why did they have so many, with so much knowledge and foresight?  A mystery to me as well.

[Hagar]

Here's a disclaimer.  I had two sites tell me it wal Tytler, and now it appears that Tytler may have only came up with half of that, or none at all.  Gotta love the Internet.  Regardless of who or when it was written, I'm in a hundred percent agreement.

BTW, I was told we're a Republic, not a democracy.  Who knew (everyone but me lol)?  Minor difference, but the results are the same.