echofonic

My father and i have been discussing politics lately. It's been interesting, and at times a bit tense, because although we're very similar in many different ways (which tends to totally freak me out), to say that we have very different social, moral, and political views is the understatement of the century. We rarely ever agree on political issues... but he wrote something to me last week that that really surprised and impressed me:


"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 worlds greatest civilizations, from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, each of these nations have progressed 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 apathy;
> from apathy to dependence;
> from dependence back into bondage."



...all this from my "pro-American", pro-Bush, pro-life, Republican, newly-ordained Lutheran Deacon-of-a-father.