A democracy is always temporary in nature

[jg1]

Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It’s not your parents, your job, the economy, the weather, or your age that’s to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, PERIOD.

In 1887 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 over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's 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."

The Obituary follows:

Born 1776, Died 2012

It doesn't hurt to read this several times.

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul , Minnesota ,

points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29

Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million McCain: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 McCain: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was

mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income

tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the

"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy,

with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached

the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal

invaders called illegal's - and they vote - then we can say goodbye to the

USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at

stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom..

This is truly scary!

Of course we are not a democracy, we are a Constitutional Republic .

Someone should point this out to Obama.

Of course we know he and too many others pay little attention to The Constitution.

There couldn't be more at stake than on Nov 6, 2012.

[Shabibilicious]

Thank goodness the U.S. is above average. Sorry.....glass half full guy here.

GO RV, then BV

[The Machine]

There couldn't be more at stake than on Nov 6, 2012.

There sure is ..... it's the day I lose my best friend forever ..... he's getting married on the 5th lol

oh and the rest of your post was pretty true only I'd say the US is somewhere between "apathy to dependance" not "complacency to apathy"

[ThoughtEcho]

I vaguely remembered seeing something like this years ago, so googled it and found the following at: Urban Legends

This research originally was done for the Gore/Bush 2000 election. The circulating email since 2000 has morphed into a reference to the 2008 election Obama/McCain

ORIGINAL EMAIL (Excerpt):

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent Presidential election:

Population of counties won:

by Gore, 127 million;

by Bush, 143 million;

Square miles of land won:

by Gore, 580,000;

by Bush, 2,427,000;

States won:

by Gore, 19;

by Bush, 29;

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won:

by Gore, 13.2;

by 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 the "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.

Analysis:

This misleading assemblage of facts and figures was partly true when it first began circulating in 2000 but went over the line to become entirely false when it reappeared in 2008 citing all the same data under the pretext of interpreting that year's election results.

Comparing the email's figures to those reported by USA Today and Associated Press, we find most of the claims to be roughly accurate for November 2000:

ACTUAL REPORTED STATS

Population of counties won by Gore: 133,000,000

Population of counties won by Bush: 148,000,000

Square miles of country won by Gore: 577,029

Square miles of country won by Bush: 2,432,603

States won by Gore: 20

States won by Bush: 30

Number of counties won by Gore: 674

Number of counties won by Bush: 2,439

However, when it comes to the Average Murder Rates per 100,000 in the counties won by Gore vs. those won by Bush, the statistics in the email were either erroneously calculated or fabricated outright. Since the actual figures are available from government sources as raw data only, I'll rely on some number-crunching already done by David Mikkelson of Snopes.com (based on Dept. of Justice data from 1999 and 2000):

Average murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by Gore: 6.5

Average murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by Bush: 4.1

There is a difference, as you can plainly see, but the real discrepancy between the murder rates of the two voting blocs is much smaller than the 13.2 per 100,000 for Gore vs. the 2.1 per 100,000 for Bush reported in the email.

[umbertino]

Quote

You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, PERIOD.

End Quote

Agreed in general... But it's undeniable that good luck and bad luck ( uncontrollable circumstances) play an important role in one's life..

[Black Swan]

Charles Darwin had it down pat, he is often misquoted with saying that the storngest survive (survival of the fitness), instead he said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

America is not adapting and therefore just like other Superpowers before it (Greece, Rome, Spain, Brits) , its day in the sun is fading.

It's the nature of things, really.

Just like humans, rather silly to think we will rein on top longer than the Dinos.

To quote one of my favorite passages:

“The present life of man upon earth, O King, seems to me in

comparison with that time which is unknown to us like the

swift flight of a sparrow through mead-hall where you sit

at supper in winter, with your Ealdormen and thanes,

while the fire blazes in the midst and the hall is warmed,

but the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging abroad.

The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out

at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry

tempest, but after a short space of fair weather, he im-

mediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter

to winter again. So this life of man appears for a

little while, but of what is to follow or what went before

we know nothing at all.