When the thirteen colonies were still part of England, Professor Alexander Tytler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburg, wrote about the fall of the Athenian republic some 2000 years prior:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, followed by a dictatorship.
The authenticity of this quote is often disputed and cannot be verified, but the words of the original author are still relevant to what is going on in the West today.
The author noted that the average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years (the comparative data cannot prove this span of years).
During those 200 years, however, these nations have always progressed
- 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 two dependence;
- From dependence back into bondage.
This progression can be seen throughout the historical books of the Bible, as well as in Greece, Persia, Babylon, and in Rome. Each of these Empires passed through the above series of stages from their inception to their decline. Where are we today on the scale?
Today we have a deteriorating form of government, no matter what party is elected or who is president. Politicians criticize each other, but they both play for the same team; the losers are always the people who vote for them.
In 1776 America supposedly came out of bondage with faith, understanding, and courage. Even against great odds, and with much bloodshed, they battled their way to achieve liberty.
Liberty is that delicate area between the force of government and the free will of man.
Liberty brings freedom of choice to work, to trade, to go and live wherever one wishes. In fact, liberty leads to abundance.
Abundance, if made an end in itself, will result in complacency, which in turn leads to apathy.
Apathy is the “let someone do it” philosophy that always brings dependency. For a period of time, dependents are often not aware they are in fact dependent.
Rather, they delude themselves by thinking that they are still free—“We can still vote, can’t we?” they ask themselves.
Eventually abundance diminishes and dependency becomes bondage once again.
We’re right now in the “apathy” stage, and we’ve possibly moved beyond the “dependence” stage, but apathy and indifference are perhaps the most negative traits of mankind.
If man had the knowledge he could see which timeline his future was headed down and reverse it before it was too late. History shouldn’t repeat itself!
