Monday 11 July 2011

18thCentury wisdom

This quote:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that point on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

is from an eighteenth-century political theorist, Alexander Tytler. I wonder if any of our current political leaders are familiar with these thoughts?

If I were more cynical (or a conspiracy theorist) I might believe that like Robert Mugabe, some politicians see bankrupting their country as a tactic to achieve management over the distribution of food and economic welfare programs and thereby to assume absolute control over the population.

What I am sure of is that if we continue to throw money away on corruptible schemes such as the spurious and Quixotic attempts to placate 'Gaia' we will find ourselves serving a dictator... perhaps even sideshow Bob.

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