“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
The quote, from a post-apocalyptic novel by the author G. Michael Hopf, sums up a stunningly pervasive cyclical vision of history.
Even so, a Constitutional Republic, requires its constituents to be an intelligent lot. We’ve diluted the mix so to say. That’s not helping.
That’s OK, we are a Constitutional Republic, thank goodness.
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 majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this 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 apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage. — Alexander Fraser Tytler
Until you show me your spreadsheet with relevant names and dates, I'm going to call this a 100% manufactured statistic.
Prove me wrong.
And let's not forget that "greatest" is an entirely subjective term (AKA, a "weasel word"), which means the basic concept is not empirically quantifiable and therefore not testable.
Yet the author claims to have quantified it.
It may be more of a downward spiral than a “cycle”. It’s not like the Roman empire bounced back.
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
Benjamin Franklin’s response to Elizabeth Willing Powel’s question: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
What a garbage article.
First, “ It’s not actually known if Alexander Tytler penned these words”.
Well, then, why continue? This is no different than the MSM making up stuff Trump said and running with it.
Second, if you can ignore #1, “If he did say or write these words, we could summarize Tytler’s beliefs in the natural progress of democracy, ‘A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury.’ “
Guess what? Any screed on democracy usually is greeted by FReepers reminding us correctly that America is NOT a democracy. As such, the alleged quote from the alleged Tyler is not applicable to America.
Third, we are past the 200 year mark. Game, set, match.
And yet, here we are, on the 4th of July, looking at fear pr0n attributable speculatively to some Scotsman about a form of government not applicable to America past the Expiration Date who, by most accounts, was talking about Roman and Hellenic democracy.
But it gets clicks for Bear State Books.
As our Founders were well aware. Another reason why they made us a REPUBLIC with a balance of power, and NOT a democracy.
Thank you for the quotes. They are valuable.
Thank you for the quotes. They are valuable.