DEMOCRACY

As I post this entry I acknowledge what has been said about bloggers: “Never have so many people had so little of value to say to so few people.” But for me as a blogger at least it is therapeutic to put some thoughts in print and some photos on display.

During this recent election cycle various thoughts about government and the populace have stirred in my mind. As I heard the campaign rhetoric I often shuddered when I heard the role some of the candidates want the government to play in my life and my land.

I do not desire the government to provide me with food and housing and insurance. Though I am in the lowest of income groups, I will take care of myself or find family, friends, or church to aid me, if needed.

I am thankful our founders established a government to protect our people from foreign powers and preserve peace among ourselves, along with just laws. The creeping invasion of government in some many areas is abominable to me. I wish I had the ability to say in a cogent and thoughtful way what I expect many other people think and feel.

Today, while reading some notes of mine, I came across a quote I recorded and shared with a number of people eight years ago. The words were attributed to Alexander Tytler, an 18th century Scottish lawyer and writer. I was set to share those words again. However, upon some further reading today, I found that Loren Collins, an Atlanta lawyer, has researched the quote.

Loren could find no facts to link the words to Andrew Tytler. However, he did find references to pieces of the quote over the last 50 years, yet without knowledge of the origin. So I will share the pieces of the statement.

An article in a 1959 edition of the New York Times Book Review queried in vain the source of this statement:

"A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only last until the citizens discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that the Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, to be followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy."

In a 1950 speech Eugene E. Wilson said:

“The pessimistic viewpoint is set forth in the following anonymous statement:
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 Complacency
from Complacency to Apathy,
from Apathy to Dependency,
from Dependency back to Bondage.”

“If the above is taken as a statement of natural law, then we are doomed. However, history records that early civilizations have often responded to a challenge and then gone on to a higher plane. In other words the expression is cyclic in character with different degrees of amplitude and different frequencies. My faith in the underlying character of the American people persuade me that, despite periods of weak leadership, we will check the downswing before it is too late.”

Loren Collins found that over the last 50 years various speakers and leaders such as Ronald Reagan have combined or edited those quotes above and attributed them to Alexander Tytler. Collins also found another interesting variation of the quote, supposedly made by the great historian Arnold Toynbee. It was published in the 1983 book It's Your Choice by Warren T. Hackett. Toynebee is quoted as saying:

"The release of initiative and enterprise made possible by self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again, after freedom brings opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent; the incompetent and unfortunate grow envious and covetous; and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the golden calf of economic security.”

“The historical cycle seems to be: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more."

Whoever said which words … I think they are all fine food for thought!