[upchuck]

The Scottish Jurist and Historian Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler published a collection of lectures in 1801. He advanced a theory of democracy based on historical observation:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until voters discover that they can vote themselves largesses from the public treasury. From that time on, the majority always votes for the candidate 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 great 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 complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."

From over 200 years ago and he nailed it big time. I'd say we're somewhere between apathy and dependency on our way to dystopia.

[SumProVita]

Indeed...it’s all so OBVIOUS. Persons...or groups of persons transition from one stage to the next depending on the virtue and wisdom of their choices...or the lack thereof.

Whenever I find myself engaged in a conversation with one who seems to think that mankind has evolved (in the full sense)...and that somehow we are all so much more enlightened these days...as perhaps compared to the Dark Ages ... I always ask:

Then, how is it that mankind still has exactly the same propensity toward sinful behavior now as it did then?

(I actually don’t even use the word, “sin,” as it would provoke such an intellectual recoil on their part, that they would be unable to concentrate on what I am asking.)

;-)