A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.
This partial quote is attributed to Alexander Frasier Tytler. He was a judge , writer and historian who lived in the 1700's and into the early 1800s. Tytler was also a professor of History, and Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh. His writings highlighted his critical view of democracy, representative democracies in particular. All government is essentially of the nature of a monarchy. (Sourced from Wikipedia.org) This month I rest with my back against the metaphorical lighthouse pondering another aspect of the Great Principal, Mind. I believe that I can not fully live this life without being aware of my life. I must be mindful. I am back to my moment, my Now room. ( Blog # XXX) As I shed light into the shadows of this huge room, this moment called Now, a wall closest to me comes into focus. What wallpaper is this? Oh, it is covered in dollar bills. You might ask why US dollar bills? Simple answer, that dollar bill should be my wallpaper; I spent my entire life chasing it. Funny how, until I finished my full time working (chasing) career, I never took a close look at that dollar. I did not notice the change in 1964 when my dollar wall paper changed from Silver Certificates to Federal Reserve Notes. Too young in 1964 to notice the change, you say! I was earning my $1.00 ( graduating from a silver quarter) producing a dandelion free lawn for a neighbor at the ripe old age of nine. In the early 1960's I spent some summers earning greenbacks learning how to properly fold laundry in my Aunt's nursing home; The beginning of a forty- five year career in healthcare. For almost five decades I earned dollars but daily family life really forced me to move that dollar earned right back out my door with great velocity. I never had the time to learn that it was not money any more but just a note saying that somebody owed something to another somebody. No more precious silver behind it. In 1971 President Nixon decided to release our currency from the standard of gold. I was wickedly too busy to understand that my dollar wallpaper had just become fiat currency wallpaper. Late in my working career while in my early fifties, I began to finally think about my retirement. Fortunately my children are much smarter than I am. They became aware of that future in their twenties. My oldest grandchildren are becoming teenagers and they already know the value of saving. With mindfulness I strive to know .... something! So, too late, I began to follow the mantra of 401k for retirement to supplement the Social Security Trust I had paid into for over forty years. Again too busy to notice that Trust is being depleted by government spending. Now it is projected to not fully pay my monthly SS amount by 2034. A 25% reduction in the works? Wow, it used to be called fixed income. Of course I learned to live on credit as many baby boomers did. We learned so well that those of us that went into government have spread that debt thing around the world faster than any virus has spread! You might ask where am I going with this train(wreck) of thought? I was fortunate to have friends and teachers who explained that of all our problems people living around the world have with each other and with all our different mindsets, values and opinions, one thing we can agree about is that money has the ability to affect change in our lives. By that consensus we give it chi, a life force. As I gaze at the dollar wallpaper of my Now room, I am glad I saved at least that amount. But saving dollars which are losing value at a rate of 2 percent a year as told to us by the powers that be. (More like ten percent inflation when you deal with the food, commodities, energy costs we face each day.) And with government helicopter dollars routinely given to us with the implied mantra buy stuff ! Move that greenback off your wall and give it back to the corporations because they give you cheap stuff while the owners and others who don't buy stuff (made in China) paper their walls with stocks and such. Capital(ism) the result of the production of goods and services is slowly dissolving into a society supported by universal basic income, not earned but expected. UBI produced from borrowed money by our government. (If you and I printed currency like the Federal Reserve does each week, we would be arrested for counterfeiting.) Calmly I rest back against my lighthouse. Do I reflect on the French philosopher Voltaire who is quoted to have said, The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from a class of citizens to give to another? Or revisit Plato who thousands of years ago was focused on different types of societies such as monarchies, aristocracies and conservative forms of democracies? Plato discovers the sociological law that internal disunion, class war fomented by antagonism of economic class interests is the driving force of all political revolutions.( Sourced from Karl Popper's The Open Society & Its Enemies, page43.) Maybe I should focus on Dickens's opening lines to his novel A Tale of Two Cities, a story set around the French Revolution triggered in part by hyper-inflation with their rich getting richer and their poor getting poorer. It was the best of times , it was the worst of times, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness..... Maybe reminisce about a college weekend where I discovered Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and other writings along with a quote that rings true to me today; The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it. I finish this post with a short tribute to end March dedicated to Women's History by mentioning the Delany Sisters. A friend was kind enough to lend me her copies of two books about these sisters. ( Sadie and Bessie Delany lived together over one hundred years. They were born to parents and grandparents that lived in slavery. Their story is so worth the read! Their two books are titled Having Our Say and Book of Everyday Wisdom.) One aspect I am sharing is how they imparted their key to living a long time and not outliving their money. Living within their means, while finding value in what they wanted and needed, afforded them frugal comfort beyond the century mark of their lives. They knew longevity ran in their family and when they were young (in their seventies) they planned and most importantly communicated with each other about shared goals to live on making the most of things. Thank you for reading and remember if you can't hold it you don't own it! Be safe in peace and joy. Mark