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[–] lettersofmarque 1 point 19 points (+20|-1) ago 

I tend to view promiscuity and hedonism as a symptom, and not so much a cause. These are the failures of leadership and example, and the dumbing down of the average towards the fulfillment of immediate appetites and away from planning ahead and building.

And so the young man returns into the country of the lotus-eaters, and takes up his dwelling there in the face of all men; and if any help be sent by his friends to the oligarchical part of him, the aforesaid vain conceits shut the gate of the king's fastness; and they will neither allow the embassy itself to enter, nor if private advisers offer the fatherly counsel of the aged will they listen to them or receive them. There is a battle and they gain the day, and then modesty, which they call silliness, is ignominiously thrust into exile by them, and temperance, which they nickname unmanliness, is trampled in the mire and cast forth; they persuade men that moderation and orderly expenditure are vulgarity and meanness, and so, by the help of a rabble of evil appetites, they drive them beyond the border.

Yes, with a will.

And when they have emptied and swept clean the soul of him who is now in their power and who is being initiated by them in great mysteries, the next thing is to bring back to their house insolence and anarchy and waste and impudence in bright array having garlands on their heads, and a great company with them, hymning their praises and calling them by sweet names; insolence they term breeding, and anarchy liberty, and waste magnificence, and impudence courage. And so the young man passes out of his original nature, which was trained in the school of necessity, into the freedom and libertinism of useless and unnecessary pleasures.

Plato's The Republic, Book VIII.

Plato names the man who lives day-to-day, without purpose and satisfying every pleasure as ... Democracy.

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[–] doginventer [S] 0 points 8 points (+8|-0) ago 

Yes indeed, and those symptoms fit historical patterns too:

The Fate of Empires: Lessons From History (blog on Sir John Glubb’s book)

https://www.bitchute.com/video/PNWXhH9Q0g8/

The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival

Sir John Bagot Glubb

http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf

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[–] Empire_of_the_mind 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

Top-tier

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[–] AshesAshes 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

Plato puts democracy as the worst form of government and the last step before tyranny. What happened to Greece and Rome?

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[–] lettersofmarque 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

I don't disagree with Plato's sequence. Democracy is mob rule and mob rule precedes total chaos. Tyranny follows chaos.

The American system has been representative; I.e. a very large oligarchy. Once the electoral college and federalism is abolished and we reach pure democracy, chaos will soon follow. Imagine the chaos if the house of representatives is the supreme law of the land.

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[–] freeman84 ago 

What does he regard as the best form?