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Article By: KenrickCleveland
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Returning to Bondage
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again into bondage." --Sir Alex Fraser Tyler (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian
This quote really impacted me and I wanted to share it with you. Are we doomed to repeat this progression? And if this is the actual progression of great civilizations, where are we in the process?
As a society we've move past bondage and spiritual faith as concepts that define us, and I hazard to say that we've also moved past courage and liberty though politicians still like us to suggest we're in the midst of it, despite some wanting to take away our civil liberties (NSA wiretapping?).
We were once an abundant nation, that is undeniable. And as we can see from recent reports, our country is most certainly abundant physically given the obesity epidemic.
I would suggest that we've even moved into the selfish and complacent stage with our eyes on apathetic. There's evidence of this everywhere. . . our bridges collapsing, civil liberties eroding, and New Orleans virtually abandoned.
It's clear that we've also become dependent. Look at how we've outsourced many jobs to India and China for cheaper foreign labor. What about our dependence on foreign oil? That seems to have presented a few problems for us in the last few years.
There's a lot of talk about illegal immigrants nowadays. It seems all of the jobs that used to be good, middle/working class careers which used to provide for a family a living wage, health insurance, the ability to buy a house and two cars, put your kids through college, and have a pension for retirement. . . the powers that be are outsourcing these jobs to be performed somewhere else for a fraction of the price and with no safety or environmental restrictions.
If this all weren't enough to prove dependence, what about that foreign oil? My children often ask on road trips, 'Are we there yet?' I would say, yes, we're there. We're on borrowed time. And I fear there's an imminent return to bondage. We've gone over this 200 year cycle by 31 years.
Phew! Boy. . . take a deep breath. Who out there is raging mad with what I've just written? How can you reframe it to tell me where I'm wrong? And who out there agrees and thinks I haven't taken it far enough? I'm trying to poke at you all here. Poke me back.
Article Source: ArticleZones.com
About the Author
Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.
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