I get lots of comments on this one...Stages of Democracy Take 2

I have received the most comments about this email. I want to say again, that it appears that the original "source" may be bogus - however, even an amateur student of political science would agree that it's basic premise is pretty sound and is born out by history. Those basic ideas were also on the minds of the framers of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. So, despite the possibly bogus work cited - I still think the ideas are important and ought to be mulled over. There IS a warning here we need to heed lest we fall like all the rest. We should avoid the egotism that leads so many to repeat the errors of the past. Will we? Recent election results make we wonder...but, of course, I hope I am wrong! Here is the original post...
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The following was in an email that I received several months ago. I was unable to track down the name of the original author (sorry). But I HAVE heard much of what it has to say before in political science lectures while at college. It bears some serious thought....

"About the time our original 13 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 prior:
"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 that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes 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." (emphasis mine - he continues...)

"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these
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 "
END QUOTE
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My comments...
I feel that the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phases of democracy, with perhaps at least 40 percent of the population already having reached the stage of "governmental dependency."

IF that really is so - then the only stage left is #8 - From dependence back into bondage. What might that look like I wonder? Possibly the welfare state becoming openly socialist and increasingly totalitarian - possibly even a dictatorship? One thing is for sure - our civil liberties will become extinct in the name of "the public good" or "safety."
You know, the Founding Fathers saw this coming and cemented our inalienble human rights in the constitution so that all future laws and govt. actions had to keep these in the center of their thinking and rulings. But social progressives constantly want to redefine these rights and the constitution so that it can be "applied" to modern situations. In the end, all that does is make it easy for some dictator(s) to "redefine" our rights and the constitution so that they can "legally" take them away (so much for inalienable).
What do you say?