What has the fall of democracy got to do with me?
I discovered this posting on an mailing list I am involved with...
About the time the original 13 States of the USA adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2000 years prior:
" 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 worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
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 into bondage"
So what relevance does it have to creativity and innovation? Well, as I looked at the cycles I began to wonder how it connected on an personal level to our personal development. I see the sequence as somewhat linked to Spiral Dynamics, the difference being that Spiral Dynamics illlustrates an ever onward and upward spiral, where the above 7 stages are a cycle.
I can see times when I have been at these different stages in my life. Some times longer than others. Let me map them...
As a baby, I moved from basic needs and dependency on my parents to interaction with the wider world. The world was a big mystical place, where GOD and religion really helped to make sense of that which I didn't understand. As I continued to grow, religion didn't help to answer all the questions I had, so I struck out alone seeking understanding rather than the blind unquestioning faith I had. As a young adult, this brought with it a sense of exuberance and freedom, where I believed that I could do anything. Knowing that I could do anything, a feeling frustrated that I wasn't getting much done, it became a little overwhelming, and so I decided to simply sit with the intellectual knowing without necessarily doing anything. And focused on comfort. As I sat in front my TV, this was reinforced, that all these terrible things were going on in the world, and I was let feeling like there was nothing I could do, so I would pick up a book or play a computer game, rather than deal with the reality. This was dependence. Luckily, I broke free of this. And how did I do it? Well, after hitting a low, low slump , it was creativity...expressing myself...and play.
And that is why I do the work I do....to empower people through creativity. Pure and simple.
I discovered this posting on an mailing list I am involved with...
About the time the original 13 States of the USA adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2000 years prior:
" 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 worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
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 into bondage"
So what relevance does it have to creativity and innovation? Well, as I looked at the cycles I began to wonder how it connected on an personal level to our personal development. I see the sequence as somewhat linked to Spiral Dynamics, the difference being that Spiral Dynamics illlustrates an ever onward and upward spiral, where the above 7 stages are a cycle.
I can see times when I have been at these different stages in my life. Some times longer than others. Let me map them...
As a baby, I moved from basic needs and dependency on my parents to interaction with the wider world. The world was a big mystical place, where GOD and religion really helped to make sense of that which I didn't understand. As I continued to grow, religion didn't help to answer all the questions I had, so I struck out alone seeking understanding rather than the blind unquestioning faith I had. As a young adult, this brought with it a sense of exuberance and freedom, where I believed that I could do anything. Knowing that I could do anything, a feeling frustrated that I wasn't getting much done, it became a little overwhelming, and so I decided to simply sit with the intellectual knowing without necessarily doing anything. And focused on comfort. As I sat in front my TV, this was reinforced, that all these terrible things were going on in the world, and I was let feeling like there was nothing I could do, so I would pick up a book or play a computer game, rather than deal with the reality. This was dependence. Luckily, I broke free of this. And how did I do it? Well, after hitting a low, low slump , it was creativity...expressing myself...and play.
And that is why I do the work I do....to empower people through creativity. Pure and simple.
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