Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 08:54:36 -0400
From: Ted Kircher <tkircher@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: A forecast of the future of the US?
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
This might be of interest to IP.
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A warning from Scots Historian Professor Alexander Tyler, circa 1787, Re:
The Fall of the Athenian Republic.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only
exist until the voters discover
that they can vote themselves largesse (generous gifts) 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, (which
is) always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the world's greatest civilization has been two
hundred 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 complacency; from complacency
to apathy, from apathy to dependence,
from dependence back into bondage."