Take Tytler

Like television, Internet has become ubiquitous and iniquitous, especially for those gullible enough to gobble up cyber gossip.

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Television evolved from entertainment to emperor by subordinating vulnerable viewers’ ability to think for themselves, to news broadcasters’ biased blather. Likewise, Internet is an over-trusted tyrant incessantly insinuating undocumented irrationality powerful enough to mutate email addicts into iconoclastic ideologues — some of whom were once undefiled innocents naïvely asking, “Why can’t we all just get along?” While I’ve never been naïve enough to believe that we can all “just get along” — preferring instead to agree with Benjamin Disraeli that sheep are foolish to try to impose vegetarianism as long as wolves crave mutton — I do attribute more veracity to Internet issuances than they warrant. My children worry that Internet addiction causes me to take life too seriously, thereby straining my antiquated arteries. They think I’m worse off now than I was before banning the boob tube, due to its disdain for objectivity and viewers’ ethics, integrity and morals. They ask, “Why can’t you treat email the same as junk mail the postman delivers? Just delete messages that foment fibrillation. No doubt, in the original wording those messages were innocuous, but have been embellished by ideological extremists as they wafted along the cyber waves.” Good question … one I should answer: Right! Life’s too short; I’m old and must avoid stress, enjoy my grandchildren, gardening, reading, and golden years. But, I can’t. Take Tytler, for instance. Few folks had ever heard of him until emails started quoting prognostications that may not have been his at all. But supposing they were. Alexander Tytler (1747-1813) was a Scotsman whose extrapolations estimating the ephemeral existence of democracies allegedly sprang from his studies of Athenian experiments with that governmental system several thousand years ago. Tytler deduced that democracies are always temporary in nature. His research indicated that their existence gathers strength until they cross that fateful political Rubicon which happens when the masses realize they can elect leaders who will not only provide for them via disbursements from public coffers, but also will replenish those coffers by increasing the tax burden of success-oriented, industrious, wealthy citizens — while remaining oblivious to the certainty that doing so eventually destroys productive people’s incentive to earn money. Consequently, as more and more indolent slobs get on the dole, the public purse becomes a sieve with no financial fountain faithfully refilling it. Then, Haves and Have-nots alike are doomed to despair and destitution, and dictatorship debuts. How long does this process take? Tytler’s best estimate was 200 years, give or take a few decades. However, the Scotsman was certain of the sequence. He proclaimed it progresses from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance. Then the timeline descends from zenith to nadir: from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage. Some emails are too stressful! I fear my aging arteries can’t take Tytler.