” Each of the great civilizations in the world passed through a series of stages from their birth to their decline to their death. Historians have listed these in ten stages.”
1) The first stage moves from bondage to spiritual faith.
2) The second from spiritual faith to great courage.
3) The third stage moves from great courage to liberty.
4) The fourth stage moves from liberty to abundance.
5) The fifth stage moves from abundance to selfishness.
6) The sixth stage moves from selfishness to complacency.
7) The seventh stage moves from complacency to apathy.
8) The eighth stage moves from apathy to moral decay.
9) The ninth stage moves from moral decay to dependence.
10) And the tenth and last stage moves from dependence to bondage.
Where would you say America is?
In doing a bit of research we have found the range of stages of societal decline to be anywhere from 7 to 10 with 9 being the most commonly agreed upon number . The list itself seems to be attributable to Sir Alex Fraser Tytler: (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian.
“ The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been two hundred years.
These nations have progressed through this sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to selfishness;
6. from selfishness to complacency;
7. from complacency to apathy;
8. from apathy to dependence;
9. from dependency back again into bondage.”
Wikipedia , however , offers this refutation of the claim that Tyler originated this progression of decline :
” There is no reliable record of Alexander Tytler’s having made the statement.[12] In fact, this passage actually comprises two quotations, which didn’t begin to appear together until the 1970s. The first portion (italicized above) first appeared on December 9, 1951,[13] as part of what appears to be an op-ed piece in The Daily Oklahoman under the byline Elmer T. Peterson.[14] The original version from Peterson’s op-ed is as follows:
Two centuries ago, a somewhat obscure Scotsman named Tytler made this profound observation: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
The list beginning “From bondage to spiritual faith” is commonly known as the “Tytler Cycle” or the “Fatal Sequence”. Its first known appearance is in a 1943 speech “Industrial Management in a Republic”[15] by H. W. Prentis, president of the Armstrong Cork Company and former president of the National Association of Manufacturers, and appears to be original to him.”
Here we have a more comprehensive examination of the history of the above quote from Loren Collins : The Truth About Tytler.
It would appear to us however , that regardless of who is responsible for formulating the aforementioned progression of man’s continual cycle of bondage to freedom to bondage , there is no denying the facts of the progression itself . Nor is there any basis for denial of where the United States happens to be in the downward spiral back to barbarism and serfdom .
Reasonable people may argue whether we are in stage 6 or stage 8 but there is no doubt whatsoever that we are coasting along the downward path and the times of courage and liberty and abundance are only visible in the rearview mirror and getting smaller by the day .
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