How long do we have?

This was written over two hundred years ago. I think it is particularly pertinent today. Please read and think. Do not emote or feel. Think.

Do you wish to live as a slave? Rmember, if you take the man's money, you are his. The irony is, the money we take, was stolen from us first.

Here is the piece sent me by a friend:

How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states 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 2,000 years earlier:
'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 they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'
'From that moment on, the majority always vote 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, those 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'