The End of the World as we Know it.

I heard this quote on the radio on the way home yesterday. I thought it was pretty good, so I decided to pass it along to you.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802)
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

I have never been a doom-sayer. Usually when people start talking about doom and gloom I respond with "Oh. It could get a lot worse..." and then I drop it.

But I have to say, the way things are going, I have come to believe that I will see the end of America as we know it. We are just a hairsbreadth away from a very different society than we used to be. In fact, if you look at any area of our current culture: the educational system, our economy, the media, our entertainment, etc., you will see trends. The elimination of God, the declining of morals, the increase of federal government, the people's increasing desire to have the government (or someone in the government) to save us all. I find it disconcerting (not necessarily frightening...)

I would like to resurrect a previous quote from Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee:

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 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.

Did you catch that phrase? "From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury..." If that doesn't fit our current state, I don't know what does. We have moved from apathy to dependence. It just leaves me with a couple of questions: How much longer do we have? Can it be turned around? Should it be turned around?