We have all been caught forwarding something juicy that came to us on the Internet which appears to be Absolutely True but later turns out to be Absolutely False.
I have cut back on forwarding such juicy stuff and since you did not get what I did not send you have no appreciation for the fact that I did not bother you with what I did not send you.
This is probably the biggest Absolutely False Item I have ever sent out but it is Probably Absolutely True. Are you confused? I’m confused too but please read on and another Smart Fellow named Gary North* will straighten both of us out...Or will he?
*Gary Kilgore North is an American economic historian. Writing from a Christian Reconstructionist perspective, North has authored or coauthored over fifty books on topics including Christian theology, economics, and history.
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Here is Alexander Tyler’s oft-quoted quote that we have forwarded many times in the past...
At about the
time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787,
Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinborough)
had this to say about “The Fall of The Athenian Republic” some 2,000 years
prior:
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 worlds 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.
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Provided you are a fellow clear thinker, you believed that Alexander Tyler proved he was a really clear thinker when he wrote these words but, thanks to Professor North, I now know that Alexander Tyler did not say what he is Internet Famous for having said.
I’ll start off this clarification with a bit of confusion. It looks like Alexander Tyler was not Alexander Tyler but was actually Alexander Fraser Tytler (with an extra “t” inserted).
A detailed response from the librarian at the University of Edinburgh reveals that no such quotation appears in the library’s holdings of books by Tytler...
Edinburgh University Library occasionally receives enquiries,
particularly from North America, about this particular work. However, this
title is not in our Library holdings, nor does it appear in the stocks of the
other major research libraries in the UK (according to the ‘union’ catalogue
COPAC)…
Locally, the chapters of Tytler’s General history … (which we DO have)
has been checked on the off-chance that The decline and fall might have been a
chapter title… but it is not…
He goes on to say that the U.S. Library of Congress has found no such quotation in its collection of books by Tytler.
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I will now show how obstinate I can be. I believe that Alexander Tyler/Tytler was absolutely right when he said what he did not say.
Again, Gary North has the right words...
“It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others’ productivity, when they modify the commandment: “Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.”
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
