Cycle of Democracy

Why is it so difficult to learn from the past? This is a question that many great people have pondered. George Santayara said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (The Life of Reason; or the Phases of human Progress, 5 vols. [1905], 1:284). L. Tom Perry stated, "I guess one of the greatest mysteries of mortality is why mankind fails to learn from history" (Ensign, Nov. 1992, 16). Being a student of the scriptures, I am familiar with a number of different groups of people who failed to learn from their history, and as a result they repeatedly passed through cycles of righteousness and wickedness. First, the Lord would bless them for their obedience. Then they became proud and started to sin. Then the Lord would chasten them with destruction and suffering. Finally, they would humble themselves and repent. The Lord would bless them again for their obedience, and the cycle would begin again. I have often heard this cycle referred to as the "pride cycle." I was a little surprised to see a similar cycle at http://patriotpost.us/Alexander/2009/09/10/the-legacy-of-american-liber… so I decided to compare the two cycles. I found that both cycles included a requirement for faith as well as a type of bondage for not having faith. This was very interesting to me. Mark Alexander called his cycle "The Cycle of Democracy" and summarized it as follows: "From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty (rule of law); from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage (rule of men)." Alexander indicated that our Founding Fathers must have known about this "Cycle of Democracy." He wrote, "Our Founders established a democratic republic, not a democracy, in order to enfeeble this cycle, but with the erosion of constitutional authority, our Republic is now in grave peril of following the same cycle as have all other democracies in history." Where in the cycle do you think our country is right now? I believe that we are past the abundance part of the cycle and somewhere in the complacency-apathy-dependence portion. I was discussing the "cycle of pride" with a friend one day, and she pointed out to me that it is not necessary for a person to go all the way through the pride cycle before starting over again. She helped me to understand that I could "check myself" when I notice pride creeping into my life and make the correction right there rather than continuing through the cycle. I really appreciated her point of view, which made lots of sense to me. Does our nation have time to "check ourselves" and go back to liberty and abundance? I think that we do. I do not believe that we have reached the point of no return; however, I strongly believe that we are almost out of time. We must act now and stop procrastinating. We all must get involved if our constitutional liberty is going to be preserved! Many of us are starting to wake up to the dire condition in our nation and are attempting to at least slow the pace towards bondage. This is very obvious from the hundreds of people who attended the Tea Parties last spring and last month in Washington D.C. as well as the Town Hall crowds. I know that I am much more involved in politics than I have ever been previously. I attended a town hall held by our senator; I attended a municipal assembly meeting and another town hall held by our mayor about our 2010 budget. I am studying the history of our nation and our Constitution. I am trying to spread the information that I gain. What can the average, everyday type of American do to stop the cycle that we are currently in? There are many actions that we can take as individuals, such as asking God to bless our nation. We can "check ourselves" as individuals and strengthen our families. We can study history and learn from the mistakes of other people instead of repeating them. The one thing that we simply must do is get the attention of our representatives and senators who are currently in Washington D.C. We must convince them that we do not want the programs they are trying to force upon us. If they continue to refuse to listen to us, we must take the necessary actions to vote them out of office and elect others who will listen to us. It is critical that we stop them from spending any more money that we don't have! We cannot have true liberty without economic liberty, and we cannot have economic liberty when someone else is holding the purse strings. We must protect our liberty at all costs! John Adams wrote the follows words to his wife Abigail in 1775: "But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever" (Patriotpost.us quoting Adam's Family Correspondence, Butterfiled, ed. Vol. 1 9241).