RealWeb Marketing Client News: December 2020

Sunday, December 13, 2020

The Tytler Cycle Part 5

John Eberhard

I have written four articles previously on what is known as the Tytler Cycle. This is a repeating cycle of events in history that is attributed by most to Scottish historian Alexander Tytler. The quote goes like this:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that 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 a 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:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage”

I created a graphic to show this:

The Apathy Stage

In my previous articles I commented on what this means to our times and this article will continue in that vein. My opinion at this time is that America is firmly in the apathy stage of this cycle. (It is possible that we are even in the dependence stage.) I don’t mean by that that people are all apathetic about everything in their lives (though some are). I mean that on the subject of their country and their government, they are apathetic.

Here are some points that back up that theory:

Surveys show that the approval rating for members of Congress is at an all-time low. Yet, in the face of that, in every election, incumbents are overwhelmingly re-elected in high percentages. How could that be? They’re unhappy with their representatives, but they re-elect them. The only explanation is that people are disgusted with the way the government is going, but they just don’t care enough about it to even elect a new candidate, or to study who the opposition candidates are. In other words, they are so apathetic that they just vote for the guy they’ve heard of before, i.e. the incumbent.

Before the 2012 Presidential election, I naively thought that President Obama didn’t have a chance. Why? Because I had been keeping up with various news items about things that Obama was doing in office, with various scandals such as Benghazi (September 2012), Fast and Furious (2011), Eric Holder being held in contempt of Congress (June 2012), etc. All before the 2012 election mind you. Not to mention the passing of Obamacare in April 2010, (with 100% Democratic votes and zero Republican votes), which was then and still is opposed by a majority of Americans.Yet Obama was re-elected, which proved several things to me: 1) The information sources that I use to get my news are not used or known about by the vast majority of Americans, 2) most Americans didn’t know about any of these scandals, 3) since these information sources are readily available, apparently most Americans just don’t care enough to become truly informed.

The mainstream media are in lock-step with the radical liberal element which controls the Democratic Party. Although the mainstream media doesn’t have the lock on the public’s information flow like they did 20-30 years ago, still the majority of Americans get their news from the network TV news stations, from CNN, and from the almost all far-left major daily newspapers like the New York Times and the LA Times. All of these news sources are reeling from reduced readership and viewership, and I believe that is at least partly because they are so liberally biased, and it does not fit with the views of a majority of the population (by survey liberals are and have been less than 25% at every point in the last 50 years). But despite the flagging viewership, the vast majority of Americans still get their news from what Rush Limbaugh calls the drive-by media. And the dominance of the far left mainstream news media distorts every aspect of the political process.So why do people even tolerate a situation like this? They can closely follow the latest reality TV show, and know what Taylor Swift or the Kardashians are doing, but they don’t care enough to get their news from a balanced source. Again, it is an apathy about the country or the government.

Have you ever seen those bits on TV where they go out and interview people and ask them basic questions about the US government, or about US history? Like who did the US fight in World War II? Or in what century was the Civil War fought? Or who is the Vice President of the United States? Or can you name any of the Justices on the US Supreme Court? Every time I see some stupid girl in her twenties say “I don’t know,” and laugh, thinking it’s funny, I die inside a little. Now granted, the point of those things is to show how stupid people are, so they’re generally not going to show you the people who could answer every question right. But still, it’s scary that those people can’t answer any of the questions right. Questions that should matter to them.

The Dependence Stage

You could also make a case for the idea that America is now in the dependence stage of the cycle.

Several years ago we learned that 49% of American households were receiving some kind of government welfare assistance. That’s a staggering figure. Nearly half. How can that be a sustaining situation? How can half of the population support the other half, and why should they have to? Of course the financial impact of that situation is lessened somewhat by the insane fact that the government borrows huge sums every year, to pay for all this nonsense. Theoretically all that money will have to be paid back someday, on the backs of just half the population. But irresponsible politicians act as if it will never have to be paid back, like a credit card with no limit, and no minimum payments.

According to the Food Research and Action Center, in March 2015, there were 45.6 million people on food stamps. That represents a 62% increase since 2009, when there were 28.2 million people on food stamps, and a 163% increase since 2001 when Bush took office, when there were 17.3 million.

We keep hearing more and more about people who just don’t ever get a job, because they can live quite well on the public assistance they’re getting. Democrats have even been promoting the idea in the last year that a job is a burden, and it’s unfair that people should have to work.

What Turns the Cycle?

So the next question we might want to look at, is what turns the cycle? What causes it to move from spiritual faith, to courage, to liberty, to abundance, to selfishness, to complacency, to apathy, to dependence, to bondage?

One of things that turns the cycle, is success. In other words, success in creating an abundance. James Quinn, whom I quote in one of my earlier articles on Tytler, thought that the abundance phase of this cycle came to an end around the time Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. So think about the post-World War II generation and period and the abundance that came out of that.

But abundance unfortunately seems to have the effect of making everyone complacent, and making them forget 1) the amount of focus and hard work that it took to create that abundance, and 2) that there was ever a time or set of circumstances where there was NOT an abundance. In other words, people who have seen an abundance in America for their entire lives, don’t think there could ever be a situation where there wasn’t an abundance.

So they do not see hard work as a necessity, they become lazy, and they don’t bother to follow what’s happening in the government with their elected officials. That’s where you get teenage girls being interviewed on the beach who can’t name the century in which the Civil war was fought, or who the two sides were. You wouldn’t have seen that kind of ignorance or carelessness 200 years ago.

In my view, the second thing that turns the cycle, is a group of people who want to be overlords to a populace in bondage.

This comes down to confronting evil. Most people don’t want to, or find it very difficult to confront evil. Some don’t care, and some just want to think happy thoughts. Once, a woman who was a friend of mine on Facebook got mad at me for posting several things in a row on Facebook that she considered negative or “not happy.” I don’t want to infer that most people are like that, but it is difficult for most people to understand and confront the fact that some people are just evil.

I think that there is a group of people who have gotten themselves into the federal government, who want us all in bondage. These are actions that will lead inevitably towards a state of the American public being under the thumb of a dictatorial class:

Encouraging people to get on public assistance, to the point that they are dependent on the government.
Taking away guns
Evolving a situation where political correctness eventually takes away our freedom of speech. The way this is done is to equate disagreement with something as “hate,” then to demonize hate, outlaw “hate speech,” until we reach a point where disagreement is outlawed. This is already happening in other countries, notably in Canada where it is illegal to publicly express disagreement with gay marriage for instance.
Encouraging racial tension until we get to the point of riots. This then makes such actions as martial law, and federal takeover of all local police in the country, acceptable. If that sounds ridiculous, take a look at the race riots in the last year, and the fact the federal government just took over the police in the DC area. Al Sharpton has called for the nationalization of all the nation’s police forces.
The crash of the economy in 2008, which according to the book “Crisis by Design” by John Truman Wolfe, was engineered and caused on purpose by a series of actions. The crash caused a massive loss of wealth for individuals worldwide. Obviously if people lose a substantial amount of their wealth, it reduces their freedom.
Passing Obamacare, so you lose control of your health care and lose choices in whether you get insurance and what type of insurance you get.

I could go on but I think you get the idea, and you can probably think of other examples where we are losing our freedoms bit by bit like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot.

The Fatal Cycle of Democracy

Some call the Tytler cycle the “Fatal Cycle of Democracy,” and some even characterize Tytler as a cynic. That’s probably not much of a stretch.

So what does it all mean. Are we all just heading down the drain?

I won’t lie and say I haven’t been extremely concerned and frustrated about the direction of the country. I think President Obama has accelerated the move towards taking away our freedoms. And you can say that Republicans are a lot better (which they are) but they sure haven’t done much to stop Obama, even with a majority in both houses of Congress.

Here’s what it means: Things don’t look good. It’s vital that we don’t allow a Democrat to be elected to the White House in 2016. But even more basic and fundamental than that, it is vital that we don’t allow ourselves to be apathetic about our government. We have to continue to care. We have to be passionate. We have to make time to do what we can to stop this destruction of our country.

The founding fathers gave us a system of government that was superior to anything ever devised on this planet. And this system has made America the most prosperous country in the history of the world.

But history shows us that the freedoms we have enjoyed in America have been the exception, not the rule, on planet Earth. And unfortunately, the evil, would-be overlords want to take those freedoms away. It’s time to stop trying to figure how these politicians could be so stupid (they’re really not, they know exactly what they’re doing), or so incompetent (they’re not, they are being extremely effective at what they want to do). It’s time to actually see that these people are evil, that they want power over our lives, and they want to take our freedoms away. It’s time to fight them.

The Tytler Cycle, Part 4

by John Eberhard
11/24/12

I am writing this article in the weeks after the 2012 election. Certainly conservatives everywhere are in shock.

I believe the Tytler cycle explains a lot about what is going on in America, and specifically the re-election of Barack Obama. I have written three other articles about the Tytler cycle (See the Tytler Cycle category in this blog).

Alexander Tytler was a Scottish historian who lived at the time of the American founding fathers. Tytler stated:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage”

First of all, a comment of my own about what makes this cycle happen and what makes it inevitable. In my religion I believe that all men are basically good, but by committing harmful acts they fall away from goodness and begin to do evil. They can be recovered to good and rehabilitated, but this is often a difficult process and the person has to be willing to change himself.

So at least for the present time, there are evil people in the world. And there are enough of these people in the world that they will work ceaselessly to pervert any free government or society and move it toward apathy, dependence and bondage.

We see politicians endlessly offering free handouts. Welfare, food stamps, rent assistance, on and on. We even see politicians offering free handouts like welfare and other goodies to illegal immigrants, and judges saying that it is unconstitutional to take away these free handouts (how does the Constitution guarantee free benefits to anyone, let alone someone who is not a citizen and has even broken the law to come here?). I think that at least some of these people are evil acting people, moving the country on purpose towards dependency and bondage. They know what they are doing, and their end game is bondage (for you, not them). They want massive power and to hang onto it as long as possible. And they can’t get as much power as they want in a free society.

Two factors make me say that we are now in the dependency stage of the Tytler cycle, and moving into the bondage stage.

1. The Percentage of the Population on Public Assistance

Take a look at the graph below, from Fox News.

From 1983 to 2011, we have gone from 30% of US households getting government benefits, to 49.1%. For anyone who’s not very good at math, that’s almost half of US households collecting some type of government assistance. Even 30% is a shocking figure but nearly 50% is beyond bizarre.

Take a look at this graphic showing US civilian labor force participation, i.e. what percentage have jobs.

It goes from 67.5% in 2000, to 63.5% in 2012. Check out the steep decline after Obama takes office in 2009.

A friend told me he saw a segment on TV in the last week where a woman was interviewed, and asked about whether she was going to get a job. She said no, because between welfare and food stamps and rent assistance, she was collecting $3,500 per month. And when she was working, she was only making $3,000 per month. So she wasn’t going to bother to get a job. $3,500 per month is $42,000 a year! That’s just a little less than the US median household income.

Tell me that that isn’t an incentive for people to sit at home and produce nothing. No contribution to society or the economy. A total parasite.

And what type of politician or official would set things up so someone could collect that much in public assistance? Does he have the best interests of the United States at heart? Obviously not.

Here’s another issue here to think about. How did we get to the point where people think it’s good or OK to just be a parasite and live off the production of others? What happened to educating people with a strong work ethic? What about the concept of exchange, or working to receive money and then using the money to buy things you need?

What happened to the stigma attached to being a leech on society? Why doesn’t that lady feel ashamed that she is sitting on her butt collecting money for doing nothing? Why aren’t her friends and relatives telling her it’s not OK? She thinks it is OK to an extent that she is willing to announce it on national TV.

Clearly people are no longer being educated with a strong work ethic, and the stigma attached to being a bum has been removed.

2. The Re-Election of Barack Obama

After I have had a chance to digest the data, I will write another article on how it was that Obama was able to be re-elected.

But for now I’ll discuss what this means in terms of the Tytler cycle.

Clearly, if 50% of the households in America are receiving some kind of government handout, then as Tytler says:

“A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that 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 a dictatorship."

Obama has been more overt than any other president about pushing free benefits. His administration has openly pushed for more and more people to receive food stamps, and food stamp consumption has increased by 41%. I have heard that this administration has even run promotional campaigns to get more people on food stamps and remove the stigma attached to it.

So that 49.1% of American households that are receiving public assistance, who do you think they are going to vote for? Which candidate has the reputation of being in favor of more free government handouts?

Obama of course. Romney is probably perceived as being too much into business and jobs and “Geez I’d have to get a job!”

So if 49.1% of households translates into nearly half the population, that’s a heck of a voting block, isn’t it? And that’s obviously been Barack Obama’s strategy and the Democratic Party’s strategy for the last 50 years.

I saw a graphic that someone posted on Facebook after the election, saying that Romney offered jobs, but the public did not want them. That's a scary idea, but it's probably close to the mark. That, to me, more than any other factor, says we are in the dependence part of the Tytler cycle and moving into bondage.

The End Game

What is the end game of getting a larger and larger percentage of the population onto the dole? First of all it is financially unsustainable. The federal government is already borrowing huge amounts to pay all these entitlements and the public debt is piling up. The level of federal debt is already at a level where it will be a crippling burden to future generations, and Obama has no intention of stopping or slowing down, even though he occasionally says that.

So the end game is total dependence, and then total bondage. Tytler says we will see financial collapse (as we are seeing in some European countries and even with some US cities and states) and then into a dictatorship. If you check out some of the Executive Orders Obama has issued, giving him ridiculous levels of power over our food, water, communications systems, it looks like martial law.

What We Can Do

Even though, per Tytler, we may have to go through a bondage cycle, I don’t believe we should all go into apathy about it. I think we should accept that there will be some hard times ahead and our country will suffer from the work of some bad men.

But I think we should continue working hard, doing what we can to educate people on key principles:

We need to educate people on the concept of exchange and that it is not OK to get something for nothing and be a parasite on society. It doesn’t matter that it is being offered by the government. People need to work for a living and be independent and they need to be taught that, apparently. Incredible but true.
We need to better instill a work ethic in people around us, especially in our next generation. Show them the satisfaction of working hard and accomplishing something and producing products and services that are high quality that other people are willing to pay their hard-earned money for.
We need to educate people that it is not bad to achieve more than other people. This is the basic lie that the liberal/socialist/statist uses. He says that if you work hard and achieve a lot, that it is bad and you shouldn't do it. You're taking the bread out of someone else's mouth. It's a complete lie.
We need to educate more people on the principles of political conservatism: less government, lower taxes, personal responsibility and the free market, and also educate them about the dangers of socialism, dependency and bondage.

Unfortunately the mainstream news media, Hollywood, and our education system are spewing out liberal-socialist propaganda constantly.

So we have our work cut out for us. But it is more important than ever for each person to do something along this line, to educate people around you. Get discussions going. Discuss these issues with your kids at the dinner table. Discuss them with friends after work. Start a book discussion group (I can recommend a great list of books to read). Post things on social media sites.

If we all do something, we can pull through the bondage period more quickly and emerge out the other side. That’s what I want to see.

The Tytler Cycle Part 3

by John Eberhard
01/16/10

I have written two other articles about the Tytler Cycle (1, 2). Alexander Tytler was a Scottish historian who lived at the time of the American founding fathers. He observed a repeating cycle that societies went through, as follows:

In the last year I have seen a bit of noise on the Internet questioning whether this concept really came from Tytler and saying that there was no proof it came from Tytler. Then a while back I got an email from someone who saw my articles on Tytler, bringing up this question of authenticity, and saying it was irresponsible for me to leave these articles on my web site.

I think this emailer and the others who question whether or not it was Tytler who came up with this concept, are completely missing the point. To me, it doesn’t matter WHO came up with this concept. Let’s even acknowledge that it may not have been Alexander Tytler.

The point is that the concept of the Tytler Cycle is a very insightful look into the way societies work and human nature.

We start out in bondage of some sort or another. Then through religion, through religious faith, we come up with the courage to fight off our chains and achieve freedom.

Then we work hard and long and achieve abundance. This is where the trouble starts.

At this point some people decide they’re tired of working. So they get selfish and lazy.

At this point, politicians get involved, and start offering a free handout to these people who are tired of working. Now we get the entitlement mentality. We get people getting inflated ideas of what their “rights” are, thinking that these handouts are a right. As an example, I remember a story about an idiot politician in Michigan a couple years ago who was saying that telephone service was a right, and that government should step in and pay for it for people who couldn’t afford to pay for a phone.

But there is a problem – a catch – with these entitlements. They lead to a condition where the person is dependent on the government. And the problem with being dependent on another, is that that other has power over you, and can decide to change things. He can take those benefits away. He can be foolish in the way he manages his money and bankrupt the treasury, leaving no money for further entitlements.

You can see an analogy in life regarding dependency. We are dependent on our parents as we grow up. But the idea is that we are supposed to grow up, get an education, get a career, start earning money, then move out on our own, and become independent. The degree to which we fail to break free of the dependency on our parents, they tend to maintain an inordinate control over our lives, perhaps telling us what job to take or where to live or whom to marry.

With politicians, what do you think their motivation is in offering us these entitlements? Do you think they are being philanthropists? Well the politicians who offer us these entitlements are almost always liberals. They certainly paint themselves that way, as the caring, compassionate crowd, and try to taint conservatives as cold, uncaring, selfish and greedy. That’s their PR at work, and they are quite good at PR.

But let’s look a little beyond the PR. I tend to agree with Mark Levin, who calls liberals “statists,” because the root of the word “liberal” comes from “freedom,” and as Levin points out, nearly all liberal/statist policies lead to reduced freedom for the individual.

Do we have to list out the actions Obama and the Democratic Congress have done in the last year which have reduced freedom? Yes I think I will:

30+ czars appointed with long reaching control over such things as education, executive pay and more
Health care “reform” poised to take over control of 1/6th of the US economy
A cap and trade bill passed by the House that would be a new, grossly intrusive government control over business
Government takeover of banks and the US auto industry, including firing of two CEOs of GM

There is talk of reinstituting the wrongly named “Fairness Doctrine,” which was originally instituted by FDR and cancelled by Reagan, and which if put back in would basically kill talk radio. There is talk of the Obama administration wanting to get control over the Internet. Statists at the UN have been trying to get control of the world’s oceans, and strip us all of our rights to bear arms. Even if you agree with one or more of these goals, why should the government have control of these things?

I believe that the liberal/statist is motivated not by philanthropy, but by power. He wants power over our lives. Obama is the most power hungry executive ever to sit in the Oval Office. It’s the death by a thousand cuts. Little by little our freedoms are getting whittled away.

According to the Tytler Cycle, after dependence comes bondage, because once elites in the capital call the shots in your life, you are to a greater and greater degree, a slave.

We could argue about whether the Tytler cycle is inevitable. It may be, but whether it is or not, I believe we must fight the loss of liberty, and the move toward dependence and bondage. We must recognize each one of the thousand cuts and fight each one.

The Tytler Cycle Revisited

by John Eberhard
03/14/09

In 2003 I became very interested in a theory developed by Scottish historian Alexander Tytler, and wrote an article on it at the time, which ironically enough is now getting a lot of attention due to being linked to from Wikipedia.

Tytler’s theory set forth a cycle that every democracy goes through, which goes like this. Tytler said the cycle starts out with a society in bondage. Then it goes in this sequence: Bondage Spiritual Faith Courage Liberty Abundance Selfishness Complacency Apathy Dependence Then starting over with Bondage Tytler organized these items in a circle:

I was fascinated with this because to me it seemed to explain what we are going through as a country right now, where people are more interested in how they can somehow soak the system to get their free ride, than building anything. Clearly we are on the left side of this cycle, somewhere in the selfishness, complacency, apathy or dependence side.

Recently I found an article entitled “An American Tragedy” dated 12/16/08 by James Quinn, a financial writer and senior director of strategic planning for a major university. Most of the article is about disgraced investment guru Bernie Madoff, but a good chunk of it concerns the Tytler cycle and exactly where Quinn thinks we are in the cycle. Here's what Quinn has to say:

“The following quote attributed to Scottish history professor Alexander Tyler in 1787, seems to portray an accurate reflection of what has occurred during our 200+ years of existence as a democracy.

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage

“These words were written two years before George Washington became our first President. There is so much truth in these words it makes me shudder, especially since we are clearly in stage 7. An honest appraisal of our country’s downward spiral is necessary to begin the process of redemption. We have continually voted ourselves increased benefits, dependent upon the printing presses of the Federal Reserve to sustain our country’s ponzi scheme. We have pawned our future and the bill will eventually come due.

“The GreatAmericanRepublic

“My assessment of the chronological sequence our democracy has progressed through, follows.

“From bondage to spiritual faith (1760 to 1769)

King George III becomes King of England
Currency Act, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, Townshend Act passed by Parliament
Sons of Liberty formed by John Adams, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, among others.

“From spiritual faith to great courage (1770 to 1783)

Boston massacre
Samuel Adams organizes the Committees of Correspondence
Parliament passes the Tea Act
Boston Tea Party
The First Continental Congress
Battle of Bunker Hill
Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense
Revolutionary War rages for six years
British surrender at Yorktown
Treaty of Paris ends Revolutionary War

“From courage to liberty (1784 to 1865)

Constitutional Convention
Constitution ratified by 13 states
George Washington elected President
Bill of Rights passed
Fugitive Slave Act passed
Louisiana Purchase
Robert Fulton invents steamboat
War of 1812
Monroe Doctrine
President Andrew Jackson battles bankers which leads to the Panic of 1837
U.S. Mexican War
California gold rush
Compromise of 1850
Dred Scott Decision
Abraham Lincoln elected President
Confederate states secede from the Union
Emancipation Proclamation
Civil War rages for four years
Union is restored
13th Amendment abolishes slavery

“From liberty to abundance (1866 to 1969)

Civil Rights Act of 1866
First Trans-Continental Railroad
Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone
Industrial Revolution
General Electric founded
Spanish American War
U.S. Steel founded
Airplane invented
Automobile invented
Federal Reserve created
World War I
Great Depression
New Deal programs implemented by FDR
Golden Gate Bridge completed
World War II
Holocaust
Atomic bomb used to end war with Japan
Marshall Plan rebuilds Europe & Japan
US emerges from the war as the only great economic power
Cold War
Korean War
Interstate highway system built
Civil Rights Movement
John F. Kennedy assassinated
Vietnam War
Great Society programs implemented
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Martin Luther King assassinated
Neil Armstrong walks on the moon

“From abundance to complacency (1970 to 1989)

Roe vs Wade
President Nixon resigns in disgrace
Oil embargo
Ronald Reagan elected President
Military buildup and tax cuts
Fall of the Soviet Union

“From complacency to apathy (1990 to 2000)

Gulf War
Bill Clinton elected President
Stock market boom
Gridlock between Congress & President leads to budget surpluses
President Clinton acquitted in impeachment trial

“From apathy to dependence (2001 to 2007)

George W. Bush elected President
Nasdaq stock bubble bursts
9/11 attack
Alan Greenspan lowers rates to 1%
Invasion of Afghanistan
Department of Homeland security created
Invasion of Iraq
Hurricane Katrina
Home prices double
Financial derivatives grow to over $100 trillion

“From dependence back into bondage (2008 to ????)

Housing prices collapse
Financial firms collapse
Government and Federal Reserve intervene to prop up the worldwide financial system
Government bailouts of financial firms and auto manufacturers
Federal Reserve & U.S. Treasury commit over $8 trillion of taxpayer funds
Barrack Obama elected President
Immediate borrowing & stimulus packages exceeding $1 trillion are discussed
Federal Reserve lowers rates to below 1%”

===============================

I tend to believe the above is pretty accurate, because we can see right now that the US government under Obama-Reid-Pelosi is making an unprecedented power grab, by increasing spending dramatically, and increasing their socialistic hold over American life. The current Democratic Party leadership is the most radically leftist/socialist we have ever had. One of their recent actions was to basically repeal the welfare reform which was enacted in the 1990s, and which was so successful too. Obama’s new budget document blatantly outlines his goals to punish high producers because they have broken the rules, which is as Marxist a plan as I have ever seen.

The question I have had for some time is whether this will continue through the entire cycle of Bondage, Spiritual Faith, Courage, Liberty, Abundance, Selfishness, Complacency, Apathy, Dependence, then starting over with Bondage; or whether concerned and knowledgeable individuals can somehow halt the decline and keep us from going into a new period of bondage?

Clearly we see the American public being apathetic and willing to allow the US government to take over more and more of our lives, and thus becoming more and more dependent.

And yet, at the same time, I see outrage and a building frustration by a large segment of the population, with protest events (the recent spate of Tea Party events), petitions, and a plethora of columns in the conservative press, decrying the power grab. Will it be enough? Can we prevent a new period of bondage?

The Tytler Cycle

by John Eberhard
09/15/03
Last year my wife, who home-schools our kids, attended several seminars on home-schooling that were put on by George Wythe College in Salt Lake City.

Dr. Shannon Brooks of the college gave a lecture on politics at the seminar called "The Liber" which my wife bought me on CD. "Liber" by the way means one who is educated for freedom, and comes from the same root as the words "library" and "liberty".

In the lecture, Dr. Brooks described the work of a man named Alexander Tytler, a Scottish historian who lived at the same time as the American Founding Fathers, who described a repeating cycle in history. He had found that societies went through this same cycle again and again, and that the cycle lasted roughly 200 years each time.

Tytler said the cycle starts out with a society in bondage. Then it goes in this sequence: Bondage Spiritual Faith Courage Liberty Abundance Selfishness Complacency Apathy Dependence Then starting over with Bondage Tytler organized these items in a circle:

So to give a little more on the sequence above, a society starts out in bondage, meaning no or very limited freedoms. Now faced with a very difficult situation (bondage), they turn to religion and religious faith. Through this they achieve the courage they need to fight for and win their freedom. Next, through the benefits of freedom, they achieve an abundance in material things.

Now we start into the other side of the circle/cycle. We get selfishness and laziness setting in. Then we get apathy and finally dependence. Then we arrive back up at the top with bondage again.

I was intrigued. I looked for information on Tytler on the Internet, could find none, and finally wrote to Dr. Brooks. He told first how to spell Tytler's name, and told me that most of Tytler's work has been completely lost. On further online search I found a number of sites with limited information on Tytler, but little more than what Brooks had said in his lecture.

I found this cycle to be very interesting in relation to where we are in the United States today. Dr. Brooks said he has asked the question of where the U.S. is in this cycle, in every one of these lectures he has given, to over 10,000 people to date. No one so far has said that we are on the right side of the cycle (spiritual faith, courage, liberty, abundance). Everyone has said we are somewhere on the left side of the circle (selfishness, complacency, apathy, dependence).

Let's talk about selfishness for a second. We have a situation in America today where many people are trying to get whatever they can out of the "system," with no concern of how this hurts the overall group of the United States of America.

Remember JFK's words at his inauguration speech? "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." You'd be hard pressed to find that sentiment in America today.

You've got one third of the US Post Office and the US Printing Office out at any given time on Workers Compensation disability. Does anyone really believe that at any given time, one third of those workers are injured so badly (and injured on the job mind you) so that they are physically unable to work? There are cases documented of federal government employees, for example, going out on disability in 1983, and collecting $5,000 per month for the last twenty years on a completely fraudulent claim. And only now is something being done about some of these cases.

How about all the damage claims cases in the courts? We've perhaps lost our incredulity for suits against the tobacco companies. But how about the new crop of suits against the fast food companies because they somehow misled people about the fact that their food is not really that good for you and (horrors) the customers became fat.

Recently a person sued his neighbor because that neighbor's dog bit him. And he won! Despite the fact that he was in the neighbor's yard at the time within the reach of the dog who was tied up, and was throwing rocks, antagonizing the dog!

Then we've got the welfare class. My mother taught school in the inner city, and would sometimes ask kids what they wanted to do when they grew up. They would sometimes reply, "Get high and get drunk." These kids' parents had been on welfare their entire lives and these kids expected to do the same. Why work or learn or achieve anything in class?

Selfishness Crisis

What we have in the U.S. today is a selfishness crisis. And believe me, this did not exist in any way, shape or form 227 years ago.

We have a generation, many of whom are looking for a way to bleed the system to get their "fair share." We could call them the "entitlement class." But it goes beyond the welfare class to people with jobs and careers, looking for some way to "cash in" in some way. There are many variations, but the common denominator is people looking for a way to get some kind of a free ride, in a manner in which they did not work for it or earn it.

This reaches even to the tops of corporate America, with the recent bunch of corporate executives and CEOs that had a lapse of ethics and conscience and seem to have forgot such annoying things as laws, in the interest of their own personal fortunes. Enron et al.

I'm not necessarily saying we are at the "selfishness" part of Tytler's cycle. We might have gone past that point. But we are at least up to that point. And complacency, apathy and dependence are not far behind. You could argue that some people today, such as those who have been on welfare for years, are in the dependence part of the cycle. I know that we had federal welfare reform passed a few years ago and that things are improving somewhat in that zone, but there's no question that dependency has become a way of life for a certain portion of our citizenry.

And when a people becomes completely dependent, they can be made into slaves. Rather easily.

What Next?

Since learning of this Tytler cycle, hearing the lecture myself and meeting Dr. Brooks, and discussing the issue with friends, I've been grappling with the idea that our country may go through a major crisis within the next 30-50 years.

As someone who feels that the United States is without a doubt the best form of government ever seen on this planet, the idea of such a crisis that could lead to what Tytler called "bondage" is very painful.

And yet, we can see the signs. Welfare recipients on the dole for life, people suing others for wacky reasons just so they can "cash in," state legislators and judges insisting that we must give billions in free benefits to illegal aliens, the concept of personal responsibility becoming a foreign concept, insurance claim fraud accounting for one third of all claims in California - all of these things weaken the group, the group of the USA. These examples penalize the ones who work hard and try to build a society, because these entitllement types are tearing it down. Those who take responsibility are hurt.

So is the cycle inevitable? Are we heading down the drain in the next few years? I wish I had the answer.

But I will say that I don't believe in the inevitability of our collapse. I don't think we can believe in it or that it's sane to believe in it. Otherwise that puts us squarely in the apathy part of the cycle. So I believe we have to assume it's not inevitable.

We need to educate people on the importance of ethics, of contributing rather than just taking, on insisting that people work for and exchange for what they receive. Only in that way can we reverse this slide. And I believe we can.

What Is the Right Privacy Screen for My Yard?

By Nancy Penrose

Everyone wants to be able to relax and have fun in their yard with the same level of comfort and privacy they enjoy inside their own home. The best and most aesthetic way to achieve this is with a privacy screen of trees.

Privacy screen trees or hedges make up a sort of “living fence”. They help to obscure the view to your yard while also adding to the beauty of your landscape and local neighborhood. They also have a few other benefits, like reducing street noise and buffering against the wind and other weather conditions.

Here are some of our top picks for trees that do very well as privacy screen trees:

Emerald Green Arborvitae Thuja occidentalis ‘emerald green’

This is one of the most popular privacy screen trees because they build a “wall of green” and take up very little yard space. They can get up to 18’ tall and 3’ wide, but you can trim them to stay at whatever height you want. A great choice for narrow planting areas. They are fairly slow growing and very low maintenance. These trees retain their deep green color all year round.

Excelsa Cedar Thuja plicata ‘excelsa’

This tree maintains its density and symmetrical form without growing to extreme heights (they average at a maximum height of 40’ tall and 15’ wide.) They grow 2-3’ a year and if you have the space, make an excellent privacy screen. These trees can be hedged as well, but since they are such fast growers, it is a little more maintenance than the Emerald Green Arborvitae

Green Giant Thuja standishii x plicata

This tree is a happy medium between the Emerald Green and Excelsa cedar. They can get up to 40’ tall, but only 8’ wide. This is a fast growing tree (about 2’ to 3’ a year) which makes for a very good substitute if you simply want a bigger Emerald Green Arborvitae. They tend to fill in and get more dense as they grow older. They have no serious pest or disease problems and are very hardy.

English Laurel Prunus laurocerasus ‘English Laurel’

This shrub is a vigorous grower and very hardy. It is one of the few evergreens with very broad leaves that are hardy in cold climates, and can tolerate shade. They can get 20’ tall and 15’ wide if not pruned annually.

Schipka Laurel Prunus laurocerasus ‘Schipkaensis’ Schipka Larel

A large evergreen shrub with dense, erect branches and brilliant green foliage. In spring it has fragrant white flowers and fruit that attract birds. A popular choice for formally pruned hedges, group plantings or privacy screens.

Portugal Laurel Prunus lusitanica ‘Portugal’ Laurel

The Portugal Laurel is a bushy, evergreen shrub or tree with dark green leaves (which are much smaller that the related, Prunus laurocerasus. It has reddish new shoots (stems) which look attractive against the dark green leaves. If left untrimmed it produces masses of small fragrant white flowers in early summer followed be small red to dark purple fruits.

Leyland Cypress Cupressocyparis leylandii

Last but not least is the Leyland Cypress, an excellent choice as a fast growing, large screening tree. Growing up to 3’ to 4’ per year, the Leyland Cypress fills in quickly (reaching heights of 60’ when fully mature). If you have enough room for the tree’s mature size, it requires very little maintenance. It also responds to shearing and works well as a hedge.

No matter what tree you find to be right for your yard, you will enjoy added comfort and beauty with a privacy screen of trees.

Nancy Penrose is the owner of Big Trees Inc., located in Snohomish, WA in the Seattle area. The company is one of the largest tree nurseries in the Seattle area with over 120,000 trees available in over 300 varieties. They not only deliver young trees, but also mature trees in a wide range of sizes. Some types of trees available include spring flowering, deciduous, evergreen, and privacy trees. The company also does tree transplanting including large trees. Their blog can be seen at https://bigtreesupply.com/blog/ or http://arboristblog.com/. They can be reached at 360-563-2700.

Big Trees Inc.
10928 Springhetti Rd
Snohomish, WA 98296
360-563-2700
https://bigtreesupply.com/blog/
https://arboristblog.com
https://bigtreesupply.com

Big Tree Planting Company Helps Restore Yard After Fire

Big Trees Inc Helps Handle Yard Affected by Accidental Fire in Olympic Peninsula Area

SNOHOMISH, WA: Big Trees Inc, (bigtreesupply.com) a tree nursery and transplanting company in the Seattle area, recently helped with a situation where a homeowner’s yard had been subjected to an accidental fire. The fire burned down several trees in the yard, which Big Tress Inc was able to replace successfully, restoring the original landscape.

Big Trees Inc was recently contacted by a homeowner in the Olympic Peninsula area whose trees had been accidently burned down by a neighbor's subcontractor. The homeowner had a mature row of 12' tall Emerald Green arborvitae that ran alongside their driveway and helped to screen the neighbor's driveway. Unfortunately, when the neighbor hired somebody to asphalt their driveway, their machinery caught the trees on fire burning a long section of trees.

“Sometimes these situations can get very contentious with blame and accountability,” said Nancy Penrose, owner of Big Trees Inc. “In this case, everyone involved worked together, including the insurance company!”

Big Trees Inc was hired to install 12’ Emerald Greens matching the height of the surviving trees to fill in the now empty space between the two neighbors.

“We did not know you could buy mature trees,” said the homeowner. “We were ecstatic when we heard about Big Trees and they were very accommodating as far as sending pictures of their trees and fitting us into their schedule. Their crew worked all day in the pouring down rain to get it done and now, it looks even better than it did before the fire! We couldn't be more pleased.”

Nancy Penrose stated: “We have seen so many examples of jobs like these where a successful tree installation is able to ease the tension between neighbors. We’re very pleased to be of service.”

Big Trees Inc.
10928 Springhetti Rd
Snohomish, WA 98296
360-563-2700
https://bigtreesupply.com/blog/
https://arboristblog.com
https://bigtreesupply.com

Friday, December 11, 2020

Construction Company Talks on Common Remodeling Problems

California Construction Company Warns Homeowners on Common Remodeling Difficulties

SAN PEDRO, CA: Silva Construction, (https://www.silvaconstruction.com) a California remodeling and construction company, recently released a public statement on common difficulties that come up in remodeling projects, advising homeowners on how to avoid them and have a successful remodeling project for their home.

The company laid out several points of primary concern when starting remodeling on a home, as follows:

Lay out your short-term as well as long-term goals for the house so these can be taken into consideration. Don’t have unrealistic expectations for your current remodeling job.
Don’t under-budget. Allow for about 20% more than the expected budget to account for unforeseen expenses.
Ask for references when selecting a contractor for remodeling. Go with a contractor who has good references and a history of experience.
Similarly, be wary of a contractor who bids much lower. Do your research as above to ensure the remodeling job will be of the highest quality.
Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions throughout the remodeling process, to ensure there is no miscommunication on the project.
Always find out what permit will be needed for the project and ensure it is gotten.
Be careful with choosing low-quality materials. It is almost always recommended to go with quality materials that will last longer.

Dave Silva, co-owner of Silva Construction, stated the following: “When you are getting ready to get remodeling done on your home, everyone involved wants to make sure it is done as efficiently as possible. That means doing a job that is realistic, on-budget, good quality materials that will last and working with a contractor who has the references and experience to get a good product. After all, it is your home, so you deserve the best with your remodeling. The points above are the major points that I see when a remodeling project goes wrong, which means someone has to come in and correct it. Keeping these points in mind you will avoid some of the common difficulties that remodeling projects get into.”

Dave Silva and David Clarke are owners of Silva Construction, Inc., located in San Pedro, CA. The company has over 40 years of experience in remodeling construction, and serves Southern California’s South Bay area, including Westchester, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, San Pedro, Hermosa Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Harbor City, Lomita, Torrance, and other select areas. Their blog can be seen at https://www.silvaconstruction.com/blog3/ and their website can be seen at https://www.silvaconstruction.com/. They can be reached at 310-831-6310.

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