Knowledge Seeker
  • Home
  • Articles

How Long Do Civilizations Last? (Two Minutes to Read)

4/23/2012

 
Based on history it’s difficult to make the case that a civilization will last more than 200 years. There are many reasons why a democracy has a difficult time making it over the long haul which you’ll see below.Let me start with a civilization cycle provided by Dr. Alexander Tyler. Many other professors agree with him as I’m sure you’ve seen in many articles and books. This is how it flows:

1. People go from bondage to spirituality.
2. From spiritual faith to great courage.
3. From courage to freedom/liberty.
4. From liberty to abundance.
5. From abundance to complacency.
6. From complacency to apathy.
7. From apathy to dependence.
8. From dependence back to bondage (which is usually a dictatorship).

Take another look at the above and come up with your own conclusion as to where we are as a nation. Although I know some people are at level 7, I think most of our society is at level six. I think this because we’re not counting our blessings and now most people are apathetic as to whether they can make a difference. Many people know how bad things are but don’t have any answers to how to improve things so they just give up and hope the politicians are taking care of things. I don’t think they’re taking care of things but they are taking care of themselves.

The reason a democracy has such a tough time making it (which can be seen above) is that it’s a great model (especially the one our forefathers put together) which outlined the very essence of capitalism. Unfortunately this good thing always leads to some bad things. First of all, some people make it so to speak and some people don’t. With this in mind there comes a division between our economic classes and this negatively affects our democracy which I’ll explain in a minute. The other bad thing is that with abundance comes complacency. We lose that “Eye of the Tiger” to keep pushing ourselves to be the best we can. A nation that is apathetic is prime to be defeated in war.

Let me address this economic class issue and that is the lower classes feel they aren’t being treated fairly and that the people at the top are getting away with everything. With this in mind, they become much more aggressive at voting for politicians who will take care of  them. Someone once said: “A democracy will endure until the politicians figure out they can bribe the public with the public’s own money.” And Benjamin Franklin said: “When people find they can vote themselves money that will be the end of our Republic.” So there’s no better way to provide citizens with opportunities than through capitalism but it leads to a dependency on government from the lower classes because of their growing entitlement mentality. And following Dr. Tyler’s cycle above, this dependency leads to bondage/slavery
because the state will be their livelihood. This is also known as socialism.

Randy
4/25/2012 04:15:13 am

Great blog! I'm afraid the U.S. fits exactly on your timeline and unfortantely we're at the wrong end.

Kevin
4/25/2012 03:08:25 pm

There's no doubt in my mind that as morals decline so does society.

Melissa
4/25/2012 03:10:14 pm

I wonder if all those civilizations that disappeared knew it was going to happen? I feel like we chug along thinking nothing is going to happen to us when instead we're extremely vulnerable..

Rick T.
5/26/2012 05:28:49 am

This is VERY scary!


Comments are closed.

    Author: John Mann

    Picture

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly