Life Cycle

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations since the beginning of recorded history has been about 200 years. Our republic, founded in 1776, has survived longer than most.

According to the historian, Arnold Toynbee, all the great nations of history have passed through the same eight-part life cycle:

• from bondage to spiritual faith
  
• from spiritual faith to great courage
  
• from courage to liberty
  
• from liberty to abundance
  
• from abundance to complacency
  
• from complacency to apathy
  
• from apathy to dependence
  
• from dependence back to bondage

If Toynbee is correct, where is America in this sequence?