Epitaph

First they exterminated the native population, and then they brought in slaves to work the fields. After a violent, bloody war the slaves went off to work in factories, keeping their former masters rich and idle while the descendents of the slaves still worked very hard, earning only pennies on the dollar. Instead of trying to make life better and fairer for everyone, as many had in the past, the people quickly forgot these noble Enlightenment goals and soon made it their business only to prosper at the expense of others, just as it had been before the advent of democracy. 

Nonconformity was at first encouraged, then only tolerated, then violently stamped out. 

Meanwhile the rivers were dammed, the trees felled, the lakes surrounded with vacation cabins and retirement condominiums to house all the people trying to escape their newfound imprisonment. What little forest remained caught fire and burned, and the Earth and even the air people breathed gradually filled in with waste products and poisons, further reducing the people's ability to think, plan, or even to do much of anything at all.  

So then, bereft of fortitude or dignity, they decided to elect a Fascist Dictator, in order that their numerous and mounting problems be solved for them, for once and for all. 

It was nice to know that someone cared about them, since by this time practically no one else did.