DEMOCRATIC CYCLE
In 1887 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 over loose fiscal policy (Hmm – I’m thinking Zuma). Sadly, this is always followed by a dictatorship." (Hmm – I’m thinking Malema)
"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 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."
The United States obituary follows: United States of America, Born 1776, Died 2016 Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Obama: 19 Romney: 29 square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 Romney: 2,427,000 Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million Romney: 143 million Murder per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 Romney: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Romney won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country. (Like Cape Town I guess). Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low Income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."
Surely not the same as South Africa’s rural poor?
Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of Democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase. (It did not take seventeen million South Africans that long).
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals - and they vote – (d’ya think our Zimbabweans, Malawians, Congolese and Zambians are similar) then we can say goodbye to the USA and Australia in fewer than five years.
And how does South Africa measure up?
Well I reckon we did the bondage to liberty thing under the ANC stalwarts in about one hundred years. Then we accomplished the liberty to apathy stage under Mbeki and Zuma in the next twenty two odd years. With the help of Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and others we can cover the apathy through dependence back to the bondage stage in about another thirty years thereafter.
The ANC will have completed that 2,000 year old cycle in only one hundred and fifty two years.
Eat your heart out Athenians.
Bryan Britton