Off The Editor’s Desk – 6-3-2015
I like a quotation, which is commonly known as the “Tyler Cycle” or “Fatal Sequence”. Its first known appearance was in a 1943 speech by Henning W. Prentiss, Jr., but was attributed to a Scotsman named Alexander Fraser Tyler (1747 to 1813) but there is no reliable record of Tyler having written any part of the text.
The first appearance is in an op-ed piece by Elmer T. Peterson in the December 9, 1951 The Daily Oklahoman, which attributed it to Tyler. I am including it in this week column as a warning to all:
“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 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 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 dependence; From dependence back to bondage.”
In the above equation, where is the United States as a nation? Certainly we have had faith, courage, liberty and abundance. Are we now at apathy and dependence?
I try to watch the announcements of everyone that enters the race for president and I was very excited about the appearance of our Governor Scott Walker on Fox News Sunday morning. He did a very good job of explaining himself.
I did watch a speech by Senator Bernie Sanders, who announced his desire to be president. Sanders, an independent senator, who calls himself a socialist, is running as a democrat. He wants free health care, free education and free everything. I think that is great, but who is going to pay for all this free stuff?
As a nation, we are so far in debt that I can’t see how we will ever be able to pay that obligation off. Adding more giveaway programs from the government will only grow the debt.
Forbes listed over 1800 people that are billionaires with an estimate net worth of somewhere around eight trillion. If we took all that money away from those rich people and reduced the debt, this nation would still be some eleven trillion in the red.
Get a job and work to get ahead. You and everyone else will be the winner.
Thanks for reading! — Carlton