The Tytler Cycle of History

Originally Published December 5, 2010 

Let’s start right from the beginning and say that Alexander Tytler (or Tyler) may or may not have written this around 1787. Tytler was a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh and said this about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2000 years prior:

A little internet search will offer many people claiming credit for this. I’ve included a few articles with different information. At this point I think the concept is as or more important than the author.

"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 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:

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: a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

7. From complacency to apathy: absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement

8. From apathy to dependence:

9. From dependence back into bondage "

I believe that the message is more important than who actually said it. So I’m just going to stick with Tytler.

There are several good articles about this and one that I found very helpful was by John Eberhard  http://commonsensegovernment.com/article-03-14-09.html  He breaks the American cycle down like this:

 

“From bondage to spiritual faith               (1760 to 1769)

• King George III becomes King of England
• Currency Act, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, Townsend Act passed by Parliament
• Sons of Liberty formed by John Adams, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, among others.

“From spiritual faith to great courage     (1770 to 1783)

• Boston massacre
• Parliament passes the Tea Act
• Boston Tea Party
• The First Continental Congress
• Revolutionary War rages for six years
• British surrender at Yorktown 

“From courage to liberty                            (1784 to 1865)

• Constitutional Convention
• George Washington elected President
• Bill of Rights passed
• Abraham Lincoln elected President
• Confederate states secede from the Union
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Civil War rages for four years
• Union is restored
• 13th Amendment abolishes slavery

“From liberty to abundance                                   (1866 to 1969)

• First Trans-Continental Railroad
• Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone
• Industrial Revolution
• Airplane invented December 17, 1903
• Neil Armstrong walks on the moon July 20, 1969

“From abundance to complacency                      (1970 to 1989)

• Roe vs Wade
• President Nixon resigns in disgrace
• Oil embargo
• Ronald Reagan elected President
• Fall of the Soviet Union

“From complacency to apathy                  (1990 to 2000)

• Gulf War
• Bill Clinton elected President
• Gridlock between Congress & President leads to budget surpluses
• President Clinton acquitted in impeachment trial

“From apathy to dependence                    (2001 to 2007)

• Nasdaq stock bubble bursts
• 9/11 attack
• Department of Homeland security created
• Hurricane Katrina 

“From dependence back into bondage   (2008 to ????)

• Housing prices collapse
• Financial firms collapse
• Government bailouts  
• Federal Reserve lowers rates to below 1%”

This is an abbreviated version of Mr. Eberhard’s theory you can go to his site to read the entire article.

If you’re interested in the controversy of who actually came up with this cycle a good article can be found by Loren Collins titled “The Truth About Tytler” at http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html

The most important part to remember is we can still turn things around. People are starting to wake up and pay attention. The election of 2010 sent a huge message to Washington that once again “We the People” are watching. Combine that with another Spiritual Awakening and all things are possible. I choose to live in the possible.

Clinton and Trump and Lies Oh My

Well, well, well, wasn’t Friday an interesting day. First we have the just “found” audio tape from eleven years ago about Donald Trump and his potty misogynist mouth, and the just “found” transcript from Hillary Clinton’s speeches to the Wall Street giants.

What to think, what to think?? I’ve been thinking about this very seriously and the one thought I continue to think is this:

John (NIV) 8:2-9 “At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus,

“Teacher, this woman was caught in the act adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

This is in no way to say that I approve of either of these actions, it is however to say that if my life had been taped from birth, I’m sure, in fact I know I’ve done things that I don’t want to share with the world. I had a life before Christ and a life after Christ.  To quote an old Gospel song, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.”

I feel as if I’m seeing and hearing a lot of self-righteous people jumping on one band wagon or the other.

As an example Paul Ryan, claims to be a Christian man and instead of trying to help Trump through a crisis, he’s throwing him under the bus. I would say the same thing about Jason Chaffetz and Mark Kirk. Are they really this offended or is this the excuse they have been looking for to get rid of him, which they have been trying to doing since the beginning.

The one thing I can say about the Democrats is that they circle the wagons and help on another. Hillary’s actions have been a continuing bad run for over 30 years and still continues today.

According to some well know Pastors Donald Trump has renewed his faith. Has he, I certainly have know way of knowing and it’s not my place to judge. He didn’t make this comment eleven days ago; he said it eleven years ago.

Was it wrong? Yep, was it crude? Yep, was it misogynistic? Yep. Although I don’t approve of what Trump said, I agree more with him and his plans than I do with Hillary. One main reason, life; Hillary is for late term abortion and Trump is not. God always chooses life, as do I.

I’m not as concerned about words as I am about actions. Personally, I’ve had enough of both Clinton’s actions. So now I will continue to pray that Trump has changed and that he too will say “I’m just a sinner saved by grace!”