Arrrgh!!!

I was cleaning out drawers last night, and came across a yellowed scrap of paper that I had cut from an Ann Landers column years ago. William W. Quinn, Lt. General, U.S. Army (Ret.) had sent a letter to Ann, and I'm going to post part of it here.

"......reminded me of an article I had saved, although I don't know who wrote it. The article said the world's great civilizations averaged a cycle of 200 years. Those societies progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From great courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to selfishness
From selfishness to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependency
From dependency back again into bondage

As the United States has passed its 200th birthday, and in view of the recent epidemic of immorality, I wonder how your readers would assess America's current position in this cycle."

I believe that we are somewhere between abundance and complacency, but it's difficult to pin down just where. Certainly the immorality, drug use, and astonishing numbers of people in prision are signs of a decline. On the other hand, the rise in church attendence and charitable organizations such as Habitat for Humanity show a positive side that still exists.

I'm concerned about a number of things I see around me. I think that a large part of the populace feels that there is no point in voting because their vote can't accomplish anything. In the last election, the two candidates for President sounded like clones. I've never seen an election where the two parties were so similar in their platforms. Furthermore, a lot of the population believes, probably rightly so, that you can't get elected unless you have personal wealth.

I'm also concerned about a lack of social manners. Simple things such as assisting an older person, or holding a door for the person following you, or being pleasant to a person providing you with a service.....at a check out counter, or a salon, or the post ofice, these simple things are being lost in a world that is very ego oriented.

And the need for instant gratification that I see in the young concerns me. The only thing my parents paid for over time was their home. Everything else waited until they had the cash to buy it outright. We have chosen to live similarly, with a couple of exceptions. When I was refinancing the house, I was obsessing over $1000 on a credit card right after Christmas. It seemed like an inordinant amount to have spent, and I was afraid we wouldn't be able to refinance. The banker astounded me when he told me they MIGHT be concerned if I had $35 - $40,000 on credit. Who can live with that much debt hanging over their heads?

SO.....what do you think? Where are we on the scale of societal development? Are there other signs that we're further along the slippery slide?