From Dependance Back Into Bondage

The Governor of South Carolina (Gov. Mark Sanford) was at our school for National Young Reader's Day. While there he had the opportunity to talk to the students. He talked to the Elementary separately from the High School.

I won't get into everything he said, but I did want to mention a quote that he used from an 18th Century Scottish born British lawyer named Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee. Here is the Quote:

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.

I guess that the quote has been used recently in a notable way. I had never heard it before. The Governor's point was to ask the question, "Where do we fit in?" Obviously we are near the end, so our responsibility as citizens is to extend that life as long as possible.

I am not going to elaborate on the quote, but I did want to pass it on. I thought it was a great quote, and worth passing along.