kennethbaucum

. . . November 4th, 2008 = Election Day = Go vote.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship." --Fraser Tytler

Tytler concluded that the average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years, and that these nations went through the following cycle:

• From bondage to spiritual faith
• From spiritual faith to great courage
• From great courage to liberty
• From liberty to abundance
• From abundance to selfishness
• From selfishness to complacency
• From complacency to apathy
• From apathy to dependency
• From dependency back again to bondage

For those of you keeping up, the United States of America is now in its 231st year of existence. 231 years and I can't help but agree with Sir Tytler that this nation has reached a point in its history where most candidates win election to office with promises of bringing the bacon back home to their districts. I think Americans have subconsciously realized that they can vote themselves "largess" or money from the public treasury and as a result, the politicians are constantly pledging more public funds (or investments as they like to call it) in education, health care, security, etc.

In the book, Sen. DeMint comes to nearly the same conclusion. He says, "When this country was being formed, the critics of democracy said it won't be a permanent form of government because sooner or later people are going to figure out they they can vote themselves more benefits from government without paying for it. They were right and that moment has come."

From what I can gather, Jim DeMint believes that our country has reached the dependency stage of the Cycle of Freedom. But DeMint also believes the cycle can be broke "if America wakes up." For my part, I believe America is somewhere between complacency and apathy, and rapidly approaching dependency.

Dependency, my friends, is the last stage before bondage.

So, my question for you is where do you think the USA is on the Cycle of Freedom, and more importantly, how do we break the cycle?

Read the New York Times: The New American Consensus; Government of, by and For the Comfortable for another look at where our Cycle of Freedom may be leading us.

Credits:
Georgia Politics Unfiltered: Where is America on the Cycle of Freedom?
New York Times: The New American Consensus; Government of, by and For the Comfortable
In Search of America
People's Campaign for the Constitution

Hey. You. Yeah, you. Don't forget to do your part and be a participant in this upcoming election. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, just make sure you know why you chose that person. Oh, and don't even tell me you're too busy. Take a VoteHour, that's what I'm doing!

Today's thought is borrowed from Seth Godin's blog, and as such is geared to marketing types. However, by simply removing the first line, you can see how this applies to many areas of home, work and life. Are you waiting for the last drip?

"It is almost always about the accrued power of a thousand drips, drips that accrue, drop by drop until they overwhelm the status quo and break through, starting a flood.

The first drip is very exciting, of course. Everyone lines up to cheer.

It's the last drip that's lonely. Most of the time, everyone has long left the building, lost interest and moved on to celebrate some other first drip. The penultimate drip gets criticized... are you still working on that?... that's not so great... is that it?... but then, the drip that comes next, the last drip, proves once and for all that you were doing the right thing all along."

[ borrowed from Seth Godin's blog ]