Siga-me

Roberto Henry Ebelt

The subject of our last class was rather frightening. It was scaring, indeed. I take the opportunity, today, to translate it into Portuguese:

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

Uma democracia é, por sua natureza, sempre temporária; ela simplesmente não pode existir como uma forma permanente de governo.

A democracy will continue to exist up until the time voters discover 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 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:

Uma democracia continuará a existir até o momento em que os eleitores descobrirem que eles podem votar (em benefício próprio) generosas doações a ser providas pelo tesouro público.
A partir de tal momento, a maioria sempre votará a favor dos candidatos que prometerem o mais que puderem, em termos de benefícios providos pelo tesouro nacional, resultando (de tal procedimento) que todas as democracias, mais cedo ou mais tarde, entrarão em colapso devido a uma política fiscal desregrada. Tal colapso sempre será seguido por uma ditadura.
A duração média das maiores civilizações do mundo, desde o inicio da história, tem sido, em média, de 200 anos. Durante esses duzentos anos, tais nações sempre avançaram seguindo a seguinte sequência.

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back to bondage".

1. Da escravidão à fé espiritual;
2. Da fé espiritual ao nível de grande coragem;
3. Da coragem a liberdade;
4. Da liberdade à abundância;
5. Da abundância à complacência;
6. Da complacência à apatia;
7. Da apatia à dependência
8. Da dependência de volta a escravidão.

* Alexander Tytler (1747-1813) was a Scottish-born English lawyer and historian. Reportedly, Tytler was critical of democracies, pointing to the history of democracies such as Athens and its flaws (flaw = defect, imperfection), cycles, and ultimate failures. Although the authenticity of his above quote is often disputed, the words have eerie (eerie = strange frightening, mysterious) relevance today:


* Alexander Tytler (1747-1813) foi um historiador e advogado inglês, nascido na Escócia. Aparentemente, Tytler foi um crítico (severo) das democracias, apontando para a história das democracias tais como a de Atenas e suas imperfeições, ciclos e falência final. Apesar de a autenticidade de seus textos acima mencionados ser frequentemente posta em dúvida, as (suas) palavras têm uma relevância assustadora atualmente.

FIM.

When you look attentively (carefully) at the so-called "Tytler cycle", we, Brazilians, may say that we haven't gone through phase four, but we have already reached complacency and we are heading rapidly towards apathy. We are only two steps away from bondage.

Unfortunately, the words of President Fernando Henrique, that I mentioned last week, cannot be repeated only 07 days after they were uttered. His words, regarding Ms Rousseff, were SO FAR SHE HAS NOT DONE ANY FOOLISHNESS. I am sure that you know the reason why: she, herself, prepared the budget for 2011. And she, herself, allowed a 50 billion reais cut in the same 2011 budget.

I am also sorry to say that President João Figueiredo was not completely wrong when he said the following: THE MORE I KNOW MEN, THE MORE I LIKE HORSES. His only mistake was in the usage of one single word: he should have said POLITICIANS instead of MEN.

Have a nice holiday weekend and drive carefully.

Dixi.