I saved a hard-copy of a very interesting thread we had at Sysopt on June 14, 2000. I think it's significance deserves a second look at it, especially in today's sequence of events.
Thanks to tonym for starting the thread.
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This is from a speech by Dr. Dixie Lee Ray, the former head of the Atomic Energy Commision at the 29th Annual meeting of the NMMO,
Las Vegas Nevada, June 27, 1988.
"A democracy cannot survive as a permanent form of government. It can last only until the votors discover that they can vote themselves largess
from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority will always cast their ballots for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the
public purse, with the end results that a democracy always collapses from loose fiscal policies, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest democratic nations and societies has been 200 years. Each has gone 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 selfishness
from selfishness to apathy
from apathy to dependency
and from dependency back again into bondage
Thomas B. Macaulay
May 23, 1857
Prophetic, isn't it? Where are we in Macauleys sequence?
I think as a nation we're at selfishness/apathy, and right on top of a slippery slope.
Tony
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