In reading James Joyce now, I discovered an Italian writer who influenced Joyce about the four phases in history regarding politics: theocracy, autocracy, democracy, and then chaos. I worry we're heading into chaos, only to circle again back to a theocracy. I don't know. John Adams, in USA, wrote that all democracies eventually commit suicide. Scary times, man. Not sure what you people think of those four phases. Cheers! The fall of Rome led to chaos, and then theocracy of Church, the monarchs, then... Republics, like Rome before Augustus.