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 control of the Wife
into bondage.
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.
From bondage back into the
control of the Wife.
This is a
direct quote from Alexander Fraser Tytler. What stage do you think
we’re in?
Alexander
Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee FRSE was a Scottish advocate, judge,
writer and historian who served as Professor of Universal History, and
Greek and Roman Antiquities, in the University of Edinburgh. wikipedia.org
October 15, 1747
January 5, 1813
“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 followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's
greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
―
Alexander Fraser Tytler
This text was popularised as part of a longer piece commenting on the 2000 U.S. presidential election, which began circulating on the Internet during or shortly after the election's controversial conclusion.
There is no reliable record of Alexander Tytler's having written any part of the text. In fact, it actually comprises two parts which didn't begin to appear together until the 1970s. The first paragraph's earliest known appearance is in an op-ed piece by Elmer T. Peterson in the 9 December 1951 The Daily Oklahoman, which attributed it to Tytler:
I don't believe the stages cited are not really valid. Every civilization is different, the only common factor is human error. The Roman Empire started out as a monarchy, then progressed to an aristocracy, with a Senate populated by aristocrats. Most of the "citizens" were plebes or slaves. Then came the Roman Empire, ruled by a series of Monarchs, first elected by the Senate and later by the Legions. So they went from a Monarchy to a semi-democracy to a Aristocracy to an Empire and finally to military dictatorship. And they didn't last 200 years, they lasted 1000. The Empire finally fell to outside invaders. What stage are we in now? We are the world's richest country, a democratic republic with the worlds highest living standard. Are we perfect? Of course not, there is much room for improvement, as you well know. Are we in a decline? I don't think so. But, complacency is our chief enemy, so there will be many challenges in our future.
I agree with Mick in that I don't think these stages are valid or predictive of anything. Despite that fact that we preach liberty and freedom, we have openly or functionally denied both to large groups of individuals throughout our history. Even today, women make less than men for the same job, people of color make less than that. This is just one example.
Still, I would agree that our relative abundance to the rest of the world has contributed to complacency and indeed, apathy about a great many things. For sake of convenience, we are dependent on the ability to exploit the labor of individuals who live in cheap, shitty areas of the world. At one time, we did make what we need, but we have chucked all that in favor of cheap consumption. Eventually, I believe the arbitrage of foreign labor will end, the boomers and their massive demographic will retire or their jobs will be pried away from their cold dead hands and hopefully, the people who get up and go to work everyday will get to again share in the fruits of their labor. Once that happens, I think the entire country will do better and become stronger. If we choose to protect the oligarchy, we will end up like every other failed civilization.
From the same source:
ReplyDeleteThis text was popularised as part of a longer piece commenting on the 2000 U.S. presidential election, which began circulating on the Internet during or shortly after the election's controversial conclusion.
There is no reliable record of Alexander Tytler's having written any part of the text. In fact, it actually comprises two parts which didn't begin to appear together until the 1970s. The first paragraph's earliest known appearance is in an op-ed piece by Elmer T. Peterson in the 9 December 1951 The Daily Oklahoman, which attributed it to Tytler:
What stage do you think we’re in Mick?
DeleteI don't believe the stages cited are not really valid. Every civilization is different, the only common factor is human error. The Roman Empire started out as a monarchy, then progressed to an aristocracy, with a Senate populated by aristocrats. Most of the "citizens" were plebes or slaves. Then came the Roman Empire, ruled by a series of Monarchs, first elected by the Senate and later by the Legions. So they went from a Monarchy to a semi-democracy to a Aristocracy to an Empire and finally to military dictatorship. And they didn't last 200 years, they lasted 1000. The Empire finally fell to outside invaders. What stage are we in now? We are the world's richest country, a democratic republic with the worlds highest living standard. Are we perfect? Of course not, there is much room for improvement, as you well know. Are we in a decline? I don't think so. But, complacency is our chief enemy, so there will be many challenges in our future.
DeleteKing has recently suggested that we enforce compulsory voting. Is he suggesting that our meger voting base is complacent or apathetic?
DeleteMany who are eligible to vote do not. They are complacent, apathetic and disillusioned.
DeleteCould this be the result of abundance or what Max calls cheap consumerism?
DeleteThat should have read "I don't believe the stages are really valid".
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mick in that I don't think these stages are valid or predictive of anything. Despite that fact that we preach liberty and freedom, we have openly or functionally denied both to large groups of individuals throughout our history. Even today, women make less than men for the same job, people of color make less than that. This is just one example.
ReplyDeleteStill, I would agree that our relative abundance to the rest of the world has contributed to complacency and indeed, apathy about a great many things. For sake of convenience, we are dependent on the ability to exploit the labor of individuals who live in cheap, shitty areas of the world. At one time, we did make what we need, but we have chucked all that in favor of cheap consumption. Eventually, I believe the arbitrage of foreign labor will end, the boomers and their massive demographic will retire or their jobs will be pried away from their cold dead hands and hopefully, the people who get up and go to work everyday will get to again share in the fruits of their labor. Once that happens, I think the entire country will do better and become stronger. If we choose to protect the oligarchy, we will end up like every other failed civilization.