VERY INTERESTING HISTORY LESSON



At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution. In
1787, Alexander Tyler - a Scottish history professor at the University of
Edinborough - had this to say about "The Fall of the Athenian Republic" some
2,000 years prior:


47 days to go..
THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN REPUBLIC... "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 over 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; 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."



Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St.Paul,
Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent
American Presidential election:



Population of counties won by: Gore 127 million, Bush 143 million.



Square miles of land won by: Gore 580,000, Bush 2,427,000.



States won by: Gore 19, Bush 29.



Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Gore 13.2, Bush 2.1.



Professor Olson adds, "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was
mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country.
Gore's territory encompassed those citizens living in government-owned
tenements and living off government welfare..."Olson believes the U.S. is
now somewhere between the "apathy" and the "complacency" phase of Professor
Tyler's definition of democracy; with some 40 percent of the nation's
population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.