Where are we on this bell curve?

[WhiskeyPapa]

I don't know what to think of this. It's kind of disturbing, especially since I like to be a bit more optimistic about our future. Anyway, here it is:


This memorable quotation is from Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813). Scottish jurist and historian, he was widely known in his time and was professor of Universal History at Edinburgh University in the late 18th century. The quotation is from the 1801 collection of his lectures:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results 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."

[latingirl]

Um, excuse me but, what the heck does this all mean???

[jase71]

Originally posted by kb0wwp

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results 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."

Well, at a casual glance, I'd suggest we're somewhere between complacency and apathy.
The greatest of the social engineering projects like welfare, and social security are in the past. We perpetuate them, but we're not inventing huge new ones. Instead, we can't muster enough people to vote, and we roll over for leglislation like the DMCA, the PATRIOT Act, and the like...

But it doesn't appear that he's taken into account the rise of the corporation. It would have been a novel concept to him around 1800, but if we fall back into bondage, I would guess it will be corporate bondage, not bondage to a government. Increasingly we grant corporations powers that have previously been reserved for the government.

Corporations stand everything to gain. With the right legislation, we become captive consumers, with few rights to resist them, With some of the upcoming legislation in the pipe, corporations will for the first time not be the legal equals of citizens, but will be the legal superiors of citizens.

The people, by and large, have mostly abdicated the power of the vote, and left politicians to their own devices. Corporate money has filled the void. And now, Congressman pass legislation not to win votes, but to win contributions.

Wish I could see how to stop it, but I don't.

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by jase71
Wish I could see how to stop it, but I don't.

:stupid:

The thing is, I don't think that this can be used as a completely accurate prediction, but it is close. Personally, I think well we consume most of the world's resources causing a global decent of society... So, by the time the U.S. goes, the rest of the world will be screwed too.

[hapoo]

problem is that its going through the cycle way too fast. Wish it would stay like this till i die :)