Weak Men Have Made Hard Times • The Havok Journal

“Anacyclosis.”

I heard the term anacyclosis for the first time in a recent political/philosophy podcast. Being unfamiliar with the word and intrigued by the way it was explained in the show, I did a little digging and discovered that it is more or less a theory about political cycles. The word is ancient, and quite conspicuously Greek in origin. I admit, my initial motivation for writing this article was simply because I think anacyclosis is a cool word. It’s also one that apparently isn’t used very often since my spellcheck has identified it as misspelled throughout this piece, something that will no doubt give my editor fits.

But as I dug into it, I found myself agreeing with the fundamental precepts of the theory. I also felt that it offers great explanatory value for many of the things we are seeing happen in the United States. And I discovered that it ties in neatly with an expression in a meme that I’ve seen popping up more and more in my social media feeds. I’ll explain:

According to the Anacyclosis Institute, the ancient Greeks identified six types of government (aristocracy, democracy, monarchy, ochlocracy, oligarchy, and tyranny) and claimed that transitions between those regimes occurred in a predictable pattern. Of these regime types three are healthy (aristocracy, democracy, and monarchy) and three are degenerate forms of the first (oligarchy, ochiocracy, and tyranny, respectively). According to this theory, most political movements led towards democracy and once democracy was achieved, regimes were a lot less likely to move back in the other direction, unless the entire system collapsed or was overthrown.

To paraphrase the explanation used by the Anacyclosis Institute, anacyclosis begins with the movement of a people out of anarchy and into the establishment of government under a monarchy. Over time, the monarchy devolves into a tyranny; after all, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. After getting tired of tyrants, the wealthy nobles and other elites force the monarch to share power through an aristocracy, which then devolves into an oligarchy. Once a middle class inevitably emerges and inevitably wants to keep more of the fruits of their labor, the middle class drives the establishment of a democracy.

But once a democracy gets to a certain point, perhaps the point where citizens realize they can “vote themselves largess from the public treasury,” as explained by Alexander Fraser Tytler, the democracy starts to decline. Democracy–rule by the people–eventually succumbs to ochiocracy–mob rule. When mob rule starts, anarchy soon follows. And in the chaos spawned by mob rule, a monarchy arises to bring order to the chaos and the cycle begins anew.

The above is, of course, a grossly oversimplified explanation of anacyclosis. And of course the theory has its critics, as all great theories do. But I think it reflects a deep understanding of human nature. Publius, one of the architects of anacyclosis, described human beings as “savage, scattered, and insecure” mirroring what a later philosopher described as the “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” natural condition of humans. Moving from a natural human condition and state of complete freedom to civilized existence requires giving up some degree of freedom and enduring curtailment of some of our rights. That leads to formation of governments, and the process of anacyclosis begins.

In addition to his aforementioned observation about the dangers of “the public voting itself public funds,” I thought that Tytler was also interesting because of his own proposed cycle of humanity:

From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler

While I would probably substitute “shared values” for “spiritual faith,” I think the gist of Tytler’s statement is absolutely correct. If you are dependent upon anything long enough, you become a slave to it. That’s true whether it’s something like attention, religion, drugs, another human being or… your own government. Once we abandon our values, once we have become dependent upon Tytler’s “government largesse,” once we forget the things that brought us our bountiful and secure existence, we begin to move away from the “democracy” phase anacyclosis and start the long, slow slide into ochiocracy and inevitably into anarchy.

I tend to be a fan of simplicity, and while anacyclosis and Tytler both have their merits, I found the simplest and most relatable explanation of the cycles of politics, and human nature, came from a quote attributed to G. Michael Hopf in his apocalyptic novel Those Who Remain. It goes something like this: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” This is, of course, the meme I alluded to in the opening paragraphs of this article.

To be clear, I’m interpreting Hopf’s use of “men” as referring to mankind in general, not to males. Women certainly have agency in determining modern political cycles; we are all in this together. But I think that the main point of the meme absolutely holds, and we see a primary example of it right here in America. Regardless of who is to blame, we are weak right now. Our institutions are failing, and we are more divided now than we were at any time in our nation–or at least in my lifetime.

We seem to be slipping away from a “republic” to a “democracy” in the strictest sense of the word, and as defined by mob rule, every day. And with a public debt of some $35 trillion-with-a-T, it is hard for me to see how much more we “largesse” we could vote ourselves… although that doesn’t seem to keep our politicians from trying. Most Americans are unfit for military service and even those who can join the military, increasingly don’t want to. Most Americans seem to think that America only has things worth living for. Obesity and drug abuse–afflictions of the “good times”–run rampant. We seem committed to destroying the common myths that have united our country for hundreds of years. We have become soft.

And we are, indeed, in unprecedented “hard times.”

Or… are we? I think another aspect of human nature is that we tend to view history through the soda straw of our own life’s experiences. While things are indeed hard in America right now, we as a country made it through our own revolution, survived Shay’s Rebellion, Harper’s Ferry, the Civil War, the Depression, both World Wars and numerous other foreign conflicts, the Civil Rights era, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the 9/11 attacks, and too many other things to mention. Each time, we’ve managed to emerge into an even-greater level of prosperity, even-better “good times.”

Anacyclosis is all about cycles. Tytler’s spiritual journey is about a cycle. And Hopf’s “hard times” is about a cycle. I think we are in a cycle right now, a cycle of divisiveness and uncertainty and deep, deep mistrust. I am not naive enough to think that the good times can last forever, but I still believe in the dream that became America and still have enough faith to believe that we can get through this as a country.

But the division is deep, and it won’t get better on its own. It is going to require a lot of work from a lot of “strong” people to get our country back on track and unified as Americans after the hard times we are currently experiencing. I don’t know what that looks like or how yet it’s going to get done, but I’m willing to put in the work.

Are you?

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Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Charles Faint served 27 years in the US Army, including seven combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with various Special Operations Forces units.  He also completed operational assignments in Egypt, the Philippines, and the Republic of Korea. He is the owner of The Havok Journal and the executive director of the Second Mission Foundation.  The views expressed in this article are his own and do not reflect those of the US Government or any other person or entity.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.

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