The Fall
Really cool stuff......too bad if it's true....and seems to be!!
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 Edinburgh) 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:
>
>Counties won:
>Gore = 677
>Bush = 2434
>
>Population of counties won by:
>Gore=127 million
>Bush=143 million
>
>Square miles of land won by:
>Gore=580,134
>Bush=2,427,039
>
>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 the U.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.