Is Democracy Doomed? By Chris Talgo. According to Scottish historian Alexander Fraser Tytler:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates 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 greatest 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 apathy;
- From apathy to dependence;
- From dependence back into bondage.
It’s pretty obvious the West is in the lower half of the sequence right now. The author’s thoughts:
From Abundance to Selfishness … In the United States, this stage began in the 1960s, when young Americans launched the counterculture movement and engaged in rampant drug use, “free love,” and numerous illicit activities — purely for their personal enjoyment. Few during this period wished to fight for the ideals their country was built upon. Not only that, but the family unit experienced a major breakdown.
From Selfishness to Apathy … In the United States, this occurred when the Baby Boomers came of age and began to fill leadership roles in the country, not only spreading their self-indulgence across the nation but also infecting the culture with a “me” mentality and the “greed is good” philosophy. As Bill Clinton entered the Oval Office and Americans lived well beyond their means, the values of the Founding Fathers — liberty, selflessness, and discipline — fell by the wayside.
From Apathy to Dependence … This stage truly took shape in the early twenty-first century, when a greater number of Americans began to rely on the government for food, shelter, and other necessities they felt entitled to, rather than working hard to earn them.
From Dependence to Bondage … The final stage of the Tytler Cycle represents a reversion to bondage and powerlessness. Members of a civilization are fully dependent on the centralized government, and have little to no power, freedom, or liberty. In the United States, this is sadly represented by the explosion of the size and scope of the federal government in the past decade. … The federal government’s workforce is at an all-time high, not to mention the skyrocketing number of state and local public officials. Over-regulation and complicated laws are forcing Americans into a state of perpetual compliance to the ever-growing creeds of government. The days of liberty have long passed us by: Now, the government can determine what foods we eat, what type of car we drive, and even what kind of lightbulb we use in our homes.
