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Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (10216)	2/26/2006 6:15:27 PM
From: sea_urchin	Respond to of 22250

Crimson > Bush and the neo-cons could not remain in power without broad support within the ruling classes. That's as I see it. And the awful thing is that the "ruling classes" have turned to madmen as the ones to direct and control the nation. (Shades of Rasputin) The American Constitution, possibly the most profound political statement that anyone has ever written and a document which incorporates the basis of Western civilization, has been abandoned, not only in favor of tyranny and fascism, but criminality. Indeed most people, and especially Americans themselves, do not appreciate that the American Constitution incorporates the teachings of greatest minds in history. If they did, they could never accept what is happening. laissez-fairerepublic.com >>Americans today forget or ignore their culture's Grecco-Roman heritage at the peril of their freedoms and national security.<< But even more interesting is that Polybius foretold it all, and the Founding Fathers knew it. freerepublic.com >>....the ancient Greek historian Polybius outlines three simple forms of constitution--each categorized according to the number of its ruling body: monarchy (rule by the one), aristocracy (rule by the few), and democracy (rule by the many).6 According to the historian, these three simple constitutions each degenerate, over time, into their respective corrupt forms (tyranny, oligarchy, and mob-rule) by a cycle of gradual decline which he calls anacyclosis or “political revolution” (6.9.10: politeiw=n a)naku/klwsij; 6.4.7-11; cf. 6.3.9). 7 For monarchy, he claims, inevitably degrades into tyranny. Tyranny is then replaced by aristocracy, which in turn degrades into oligarchy. Oligarchy then is overthrown by democracy, which ultimately falls into its own corresponding distortion, mob-rule (or ochlocracy). In Polybius’ analysis, the cycle then starts up again (monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy) since anarchy inevitably creates a void that some new demagogue will fill.8 'Anaku/klwsij, the sliding from one form of constitution into another, is unavoidable because of the inherent weakness of each simple form of constitution.9<< In relation to this cycle what is interesting is that in the US, although the facade of a democratic process still exists, democracy has now clearly been replaced by de facto oligarchy (aristocracy) and in due course one can expect that, too, to be replaced by monarchy (dictatorship). In fact, by conferring on the president extraordinary powers, the process is already in place to do so.