Democracy is mining centuries worth of culture built up during authoritarian periods (ethic, economy)

[Avondalist]

In ancient Greece, democracy had a bad name because eventually the people would figure out that they could vote themselves money from tax revenue, and this would destroy the economy.

In Europe the grandaddy of all of these social collapses was the fall of Rome, which led to 1000 years of authoritarian governments before things started to loosen up again. The memory of this collapse was codified by the Catholic Church, which after some point became self-perpetuating.

Now however everyone has figured out that the Wizard of Oz is just a man behind a curtain. Also, more slowly in some places, such as the US, voters are figuring out that they can get cush jobs if they vote for more bureaucracy. That's not even the end stage, which is called UBI nowadays where you allegedly don't even have to work.

We are now 500 years into this loosening up process, and slowly but surely the cultural memory of collapse is disappearing, and with it the behaviors that guarded against collapse such as work ethic, personal responsibility, thrift, etc. We are mining the cultural memory of the harsh conditions during the middle ages and early modern period.

I am NOT advocating for a return to authoritarianism. My ideal would be a society where people were responsible and hard working by choice, not because they were slaves. But that doesn't seem to be how it works. I'm resigned to the path we're on, as it seems we as a species must always learn, and re-learn, the hard way. I think a return to authoritarianism is inevitable, and it's going to suck.

But people seemingly can't learn to avoid this.