Break out the Shackles-by Mike Scinto

A reader recently provided me with the following dissertation:

"A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always vote for the candidates promising 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 worlds greatest civilizations has been two hundred 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 complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again to bondage."

Keep in mind we are not a democracy, as the reader points out, but a republic. However the message of this writing could apply to both forms of government and, more importantly, transcends that message. It is a roadmap for our journey as a nation; and I might add we are frightfully close to our destination in that journey with the socialist who now sits in the White House.

These words were written over two hundred years ago by English historian Alexander Fraser Tyler about the fall of the Athenian Republic but hold so true today about the “ME” generation in America.

The reader points out that we have become apathetic and self-centered. We expect to be cared for from womb to tomb. We took a Social Security system that was supposed to supplement our retirement years and turned it into our sole means of support, thus nearly destroying it. Our banks and major corporations are now being commanded by King Obama. The free market system which, unfettered, is designed to function at its best is being dismantled. Obama Motor Car Company now replaces the “Big Three”. We give Americans a free pass if they choose not to work, defend their country or obey our laws. And now we have elected a President who is enabling us continuing to continue those practices; heck, he WANTS us to!

We don’t bother to go carry out what was our most cherished birthright, the right to vote. And many of those who do at least bother, have no clue for whom, or what, they are casting their ballot.

Yes, if you carefully study Tyler’s words again, you’ll see we have just about run full circle. And, as my reader so aptly concluded his letter to me; How soon bondage?