March 3, 2010

What was true then.......

“And hence when by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created among the masses an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them, democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence. For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from the houses of office by his penury, institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch.”

The words above were spoken by the Greek historian Polybius, who lived from 203-120 B.C.

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