How Long Do We Have?

The following makes interesting reading. I present it as food for thought. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the contents and the statistics quoted. You be the judge.

How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

• '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 they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'

• 'From that moment on, the majority always vote 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 world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'

• 'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. from dependence back into bondage'

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

• Number of States won by: Democrats: 19 Republicans: 29
• Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans: 2,427,000
• Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million
• Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare...'

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the 'complacency and apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.

Comments by Tennessee Granddaddy:

• I regret I do not know the author of the above.
  
• Are you aware that our country is a Republic and not a Democracy? In view of this, perhaps the above does not apply.
• If you want to better understand the difference between a Republic and a Democracy, I invite you to check out the following links:

1. Republic Vs. Democracy 1
   
2. Republic Vs. Democracy 2
3. On Republic Vs. Democracy
4. An Important Distinction
   

~~~
Tennessee Granddaddy Says:
Give everyone you see today a big smile.

~~~
Quote of the Day

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.
~Ben Hecht

~~~
Joke of the Day

A man speaks frantically into the phone, "My wife is pregnant, and her contractions are only two minutes apart!"

"Is this her first child?" the doctor queries.

"No, you idiot!" the man shouts. "This is her husband!"

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