As Canada Day approaches and we take a single day to celebrate our country and all that God has provided for us and it, I am more and more troubled by the signs of the times I see all around.
Canada is not today the country i was born in, neither is Ontario today the province i was raised and educated in. I will elaborate elsewhere on what I see and why it troubles me, but suffice it to say it is hard to argue with The Tytler Cycle of Why Democracies Fail. It should also be said that The Tytler Cycle is actually more likely to be attributed to Henning Webb Prentis Jr. Either way i find it eerily prescience:
"The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more."
What stage do you think we are in now?
If this cycle is true, I would suggest we are somewhere near selfishness. We are certainly post-abundance as consumers struggle to afford what was readily available for the previous generation. As a result people are clinging to whatever they can grasp in material, employment, prestige with little concern for others. Not quite sure if we are generally approaching apathy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you David but think we have actually sliden past selfishness (the baby boomers) to apathy (generation x/millenials). With record low turn outs at elections and public membership organizations like churches, service clubs and political parties... we just don't care anymore and take Canada: its freedoms, benefits and situation for granted.
ReplyDeleteThe question is ... what can we do to reverse this trend? Is it reversible?