"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, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been about 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." - Alexander Fraser Tytler.
(h/t Daily Dish).
Update: Joe Sucher has informed me that the provenance of the above quote is in dispute. See the wikipedia article on the author for the details. Anyway, I thought it was a good quote.
5 comments:
Great passage. Might be time for you to head to the garage or take a stroll out in the backyard for a walk. Many of the dumb, fat, apathetic Americans who are engaged in the political process have awakened from their deep sleep. The United States has been great and prosperous because we the people are free. We will get back to more localized government and if need be many states will nullify federal legislation. 39 state secessionist laws either passed or are on the docket. Look at Thomas Naylor in Vermont. This guy was a Professor Emeritus at Duke not some whack job conspiracy theorist. It’s not like Naylor is professing the SEC being a better football conference than the Big Ten like some of these whack jobs out there.
Indeed!
Technically the US isn't a Democracy, its a Republic, we don't even vote for the President but for people who say they'll vote for a particular candidate, ask AlGore about it.
And gotta call BS on the 200 year thing, England's still goin pretty good, OK, so there food sucks, and they have yellow teeth, and the Royal Families got more Chromosomes than a Mongoloid convention, but they gave us Bad Company, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Wham! with George Michael, Culture Club, Queen, the Stones, the Clash, Pink Floyd, Sex Pistols, Iron Madien, Judas Priest, Cream, Moody Blues, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Genesis, Jethro Tull, T Rex, Deep Purple, Def leppard, the Darkness, Police, Dire Straits, Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, the Cure, ummm think I'm missing one.
Eurhythmics.
and just name ONE good Rock n Roll Band from India or China, and tribute Bands don't count.
Frank "Take Miami" Drackman
you misquoted and misspelled his name but otherwise it is a great quote...
I would propose that using the machinery of democracy to club orthopaedic surgeons (or other physicians who don't disclose what you want them to) into submission is the same idea that you seem to disagree with by declaring this a "good quote".
Instead of the largesse being monetary benefit from the treasury, it's just the "benefit" of knowing about your surgeon's private business dealings.
Both courses of action use coercion to accomplish an outcome. You're either pro-coercion or anti-coercion: this applies regardless of the popularity or political expediency of the issue.
I re-found you through KevinMD - You need your own domain!
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