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Re: [cdn-nucl-l] Food for thought: A democracy is always temporary in nature
Indeed. Thanks Jerry.
Bill
At 01:29 PM 25/05/2004, Jerry Cuttler wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: George Calder
>To: Distribution
>Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 9:14 PM
>Subject: think about it
>
>Thought you'd find this interesting. At about the time our original 13
>states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a
>Scottish history professor at The University of Edinburgh) had this to say
>about "The Fall of The Athenian Republic" some 2,000 years prior.
>
>"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
>permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until
>the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts
>from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for
>the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with
>the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal
>policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."
>
>"The average age of the worlds 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 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."
>
>---------------------------------
>
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Bill
Garland http://engphys.mcmaster.ca/faculty_staff/faculty/garland/
http://nuceng.mcmaster.ca http://canteach.candu.org
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