On May 23, 1857, in a letter to an American friend, Lord Thomas MacCauley wrote:
A democracy cannot survive as a permanent form of government. It can last only until its citizens discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority (who vote) will vote for those candidates promising the greatest benefits from the public purse, with the result that a democracy will always collapse from loose fiscal policies, always followed by a dictatorship.The average age of the world's greatest democratic nations has been 200 years.Each has been through the following sequence:From bondage to spiritual faith. From 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.
Where are we on this continuum?
Can we escape this fate?
How?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
I believe that we are at "from apathy to dependency" because the gap between the wealthy and the rest of the nation has increased greatly because of the selfishness of man. All along no one seemed to care what the government did because everything seemed fine. But now businesses are failing and are depending on government to bail them out. I believe that we can escape this, but with that said I believe that it will not be able to happen.
I agree with Devin. Over the years the gap between the wealthy and the average family has grown. Living in a country that is so concerned with the well being of other nations you'd think that we would be fairly well off with our own financial situations. But that is clearly not the case. When you look at the number of homeless people and the number of people living in dilapitated conditions in our counrty it is scairly simliar to that of some third world nations. We have people in our own backyards who have to walk or drive miles just to get clean water to cook and clean with.But we're fighting AIDS in Africa and a war in Iraq. Ironic? Also agreeig with Devin I do not believe that as of now we are showing any progress in changing these things. We are in the apathetic stage because everybody feels sorry for everybody else. We are heading torwards the dependent stage becuase the wealthier ones are saying they can fend for themselves and that its not and shouldn't be the governments job to do so.
I would also like to ask the question as to how many of you have opinions as to how we stand economically in this country?
I also feel that we are stuck at the stage of apathy to dependency. For a while it did seem as the country and the voters were stuck in the rut of apathy. But I disagree that we are not doing anything to change the apathy towards government. Especially, moving into the election year this year I think that the country is becoming more involved in government. Citizens are beginning to voice their opinions and speak out about their ideas about government. I think that because of the growing invovlement in government the citizens and the country may be able to slove some of the problems and move away from falling into dependency.
I also believe that we are currently at the from apathy to dependency part of the sequence. I disagree with Hillary, because I do not think that our country is becoming more involved in government. I agree with Devin and her observation concerning the gap between the wealthy and the rest of the nation, as well as the selfishness of man. The wealthier are becoming richer and poor are slowly getting poorer. I don't think that we are so deep in the stage of apathy that we can't over come it, and if people do start to get more involved in government and really start to care, I think we will be able to, as Hillary said, solve some of the problems and move away from dependency.
I agree with Devin and Suzy. People in America are becoming stadily more selfish. The gap between weathy and poor is larger than ever and nothing is being done about it. We are all concerned with out own social status and not those of everyone eround us. What does not directly effect us does not concern us anymore. I believe as devin said that it is possible to fix this but it will most likely not happen. People are not going to change their own lifestyle for the good of others.
I think that we are on the complacency to selfishness stage because we used to be complacent with the amount of government in our lives, and we thought that there wasn't much we could do about it. However, after rebellions and successful activists that changed the amount of government involvement in the society, we became selfish and now we want to run the government by the people. Selfishness often has a negative connotation, but I think that in this case we can condone the behavior because it is for the better of the people. Conversely this can bring up questions about whether these actions can be condoned and whether the selfishness among citizens to want government to play a minute role in their lives is wrong.
I also agree with everyone so far that we are in the stage of "apathy to dependency." Businesses aren't the only ones depending on the government. The minority are definitly the most dependent on the government, they depend on welfare instead of getting jobs or trying to make a living for themselves. However I am not positive that some people are supporting welfare for reasons of apathy. Some candidates may be supporting the use of welfare just to get the vote of the minority. In this way we may be moving towards the selfish stage of our country's lifetime.
From what I can see, I think we are in the Apathy to dependency poart of the sequence. I think that we have suffered through terrible government policies and leaders without taking any action.
I don't think this is something that can be escaped. It is something that must happen to keep developing as a nation. The after math of apathy is often dependancy, and I don't think this is a fate we can escape.
In response to Suzy's question, I think that the state of the nation's economy is almost appalling. We have named ourselves a super power but at the moment, many citizens are struggling to get by.
Opps!-
I think that this is a fate that we don't necessarily want to escape. It is good that we are becoming more independent from the government. However, "escaping" could also mean moving out of the selfishness stage and going to almost content and a blithe attitude towards the government. This would only happen after a long time when people are either done with trying to change it, or finally just loose interest.
I tend to agree with everyone that we are at the apathy to dependency on the continuum. I disagree with Sam that we are at the stage of complacency to selfishness. When I hear “selfishness”, I think of it as a negative connotation, as most do, but I don’t understand how this is an exception where it can be looked at in a positive sense. I can understand Sam saying the people want something from the government, but it is not selfishness that runs the government by the people. How is that selfish when government by the people is something so many people want, and it’s the point behind our democracy? This is why I disagree, and much more strongly agree with Devin and Suzy. I think with the way classes have been broken up, and the weak economy, we have become much more dependent upon our country and government to rise up and move us through this stage of the continuum. This is why this election has become such a great deal. The candidate picked is expected to be the knight in shining armor for our country and save the day. Now that our country is in a state of vulnerability, people have become more dependent and hopeful, looking to a fresh new approach to running this country. However, I do feel we can escape this fate, but do we want to? If it has worked up until this point I don’t understand why there should be a push for such a significant change. Once reaching the stage of dependency into bondage, things should be less chaotic and controversial.
I agree with samantha, that we are at the complacency to selfishness stage on the continuum. right now, we are more towards the selfishness side, because we are no longer happy with our government, and want change. This can be see in the upcoming election, with the country being split into democrats and republicans. Right now, citizens want to elect the candidate that fits their individual needs, and not neccissarily the country's. We can escape this viscious circle by not taking what we have for granted, and bein open to everything that is going on aroundus in the world. By doing so, we eliminate the sense of arrogance that we have, and hold ourselves as equals. Also, if the citizens are all proactive, than they wont have to depend on the government for everything, and the people can propel themselves forward.
Post a Comment