The cheese tactics of democracy
This is making the rounds on the net.
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 encompassed those citizens living in
government-owned tenements and living off government welfare..."
Olson believes theU.S.is now somewhere between the "apathy" and
"complacency" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy; with
some 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the
"governmental dependency" phase.