This has been around for a while but perhaps could bear repeating:

       

       The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years.  These

       nations progressed through this 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 Selfishness

        6 - From Selfishness to Complacency

        7 - From Complacency to Apathy

        8 - From Apathy to Dependency

        9 - From Dependency back again into Bondage.

       America will be exactly 236 years old on July 4, 2012