Eighteenth-century Scottish history professor, Alexander Tytler, is one of a number of people credited with claiming that democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. When voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury, the majority will always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits, eventually leading to economic collapse.
According to Tytler, the average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been about 200 and passed through the following stages:
Bondage to spiritual faith
Spiritual faith to great courage
Courage to liberty
Liberty to abundance
Abundance to complacency
Complacency to apathy
Apathy to dependence
Dependence back into bondage
Exactly where the U.S. is in this cycle may be debatable, but it’s obvious we’re a whole lot closer to the end than the beginning and seem to be living on borrowed time.
Most of the campaign promises, threats, and other rhetoric surrounding this year’s elections (not to mention last year’s) would indicate we’ll likely continue along the cycle, as most people don’t seem to understand history and economics or just don’t care. To have any chance of proving Tytler wrong, most Americans need a serious attitude adjustment.
Gary T. McGavran, Bellevue