Why democracies are in peril

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You might recognize this copycat French game program from "Who wants to be a millionaire." Press play to watch the show - don't worry if you do not understand French, it's subtitled.

The question is what revolves around the earth? As the contestant pondered the question for several minutes, he decided to ask for assistance from the audience. More than half of the audience believed the sun revolved around the Earth. The contestant decided to go with the audience. Yeap - its the sun that revolves around Earth. This game show must have been recorded in the 16th century, because it was Copernicus who theorized the sun not the earth was the center of the universe, but he forgot to tell the French. I wonder how many Americans still think the Earth is the center of the universe.

Winston Churchill said, ""The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."

Nothing could be truer than Churchill's prescient foresight when watching this game show.

The game show "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" should be dumbed down to maybe second grade. Fifth grade may be too high for the average person.

And these are the people who are electing our leaders.

The evolution of Democracies

From Alexander Tyler, a Scottish History Professor at the University of Edinburgh...

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will contiue 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 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:

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."