Vicious Cycle

My Genius Friend Kevin Shockey and I have had numerous discussions about Puerto Rico. One of his many salient observations is that We seem to have "leapfrogged" the U.S. of part of A. in terms of what's happening in Our democracy/society. 

Made Me think. That's a good thing, people. Tell your elected officials to try it sometime.

So I spent a few minutes and came up with this quote, from Alexander Tytler's book 'The Cycle of Democracy":

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. 

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

“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 apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage.” (Emphasis Mine.)

Now Dr. Tytler wrote this back in the late 18th century, pre-dating much of what We now know as the U.S. of part of A. But it is worth noting that his "Cycle of Democracy" or "Fatal Sequence" is very much in evidence...and Kevin is right: We have leapfrogged Our "owners."

I spent many an hour writing about the slide into fascism that the murderous moron and his hyena cabal were engaging in. Under any measurement, civil liberties in the U.S. have been severely undermined to the point where it can be argued that the U.S. has ceased to be a true democracy.

But.

Looking at the downward part of the Cycle, where selfishness becomes apathy, then dependence and then bondage, where is the U.S. of part of A.? And where are We?

Both countries are past apathy. The evidence up north is voting numbers, where the U.S. consistently brings up the rear in voter turnout percentages amongst major democracies. Here, We eatbreatheexcrete politics, voting like banshees in heat, but can't put two brain cells together to actually think about what the Fools are doing to Us. 

The U.S. can be seen as being in the apathy-to-dependence transitional stage, making noises about issues, but waiting for someone in government to do something, like Obama coming up with some unimagined panacea. (And people getting really angry because he can't or isn't allowed to.)

But We are in bondage. Look at the stages and tell Me, Brethren, that We are in any other stage or between any other two stages. Go ahead: try.

Because We have been selfish--from Fools overloading government offices and budgets for personal and political gain to Us taking everything offered without any thought of morality or consequences--We became apathetic to whatever happened "away" from Us.

Because We were apathetic to what happened to "them," some groups seized control and doled out what the wanted, how they wanted, when they wanted and We came to depend on their indulgences, their "power," which was nothing more then the abdication of Ours.

Because We are dependent, when the government acts against Our best interests--or against Our demented whims--We feel powerless to act, incapable of proper response and thus are nothing more than prisoners of a system We spawned through indulgence and indifference. We are in bondage.

Doubt it? Where's the concerted action after the "huge," "massive," "historical" work stoppage of two weeks ago? Where are the pro-active public campaigns, the targeting of government actions, the widespread grass-roots upswell of laser-focused action?

It ain't there. Like elephants chained at infancy with puny links, We no longer believe We have the strength, will or energy to take action. We can shriek Our pain, but We can't think for Our future. We can scream epithets and tweet inanities, but We can't seize an initiative or target a goal. What We have instead is government trying to "solve" government, the warden and prison guards duking it out behind closed doors while We rattle Our bars with tin cups and yell "Dirty screws!"

And yet...

Briefly: what overthrows bondage?

The Jenius Has Spoken.