All of the following can be found in the work;
"The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic", by Alexander Fraser Tytler, published in 1801, a compilation of his lectures.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until 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 have 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."
What say yea? At which stage are we, now that the Republic has been reduced to a mere "democracy"?
