THE LAST STAGE FOR AMERICA?

THE LAST STAGE FOR AMERICA?

Today, I was reviewing Tytler’s classic study on the decline of democracies in history and suddenly woke up to the fact that America is in the last stage of decline – “from dependency to bondage.” In case you have forgotten it, here is the whole quote:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy and is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. The 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 selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependency;
from dependency back to bondage.”
(Alexander Fraser Tytler, 1748-1813, From “The Decline and
Fall of the Athenian Republic.”)

Is America adopting irresponsible fiscal policy? The national debt is reaching the point where it can never be repaid (without deep cuts that can’t get passed) even if every citizen were taxed at 100%.

Is the American presidency becoming a dictatorship? The present administration has dictated 146 executive orders which circumvent Congressional oversight. According to the Office of the Federal Register, in 1998, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the official listing of all regulations in effect, contained a total of 134,723 pages in 201 volumes that claimed 19 feet of shelf space. In 1970, the CFR totaled only 54,834 pages. These figures do not include the regulations in the 2700 page health bill. Chances are we are all breaking some law just sitting in our homes! These laws can be (and have been) selectively applied to prosecute targeted citizens into silence.

The good news in all this is the cycle starts again with a return to spiritual faith.

The bad news is between bondage and spiritual faith is usually a bloody revolution or civil war. (William Wilberforce was able to save England from civil war by restoring civility to the culture, but this is a rare occurrence in history. At this time in America, both the government and citizens are arming for a coming conflict, and no one with the power of Wilberforce is screaming for us to stop the insanity.)

I know that our men’s groups return to this theme after agonizing over the state of the nation. We have come to the conclusion that the deeper issue is that the Kingdom of God will outlast all of man’s puny attempts at utopia. So our focus is away from the distractions of national crisis to promoting God’s Kingdom where ever we can, and our greatest weapon is to keep speaking the truth where God gives us favor. So I get back to writing my books and blogs and doing my small part in helping to spread God’s character in the schools of America through Rachel’s Challenge.