Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Post-Benign Despots

What is with you guys at the top of the food chain? Are there none of you left who still have a shred of noblesse oblige remaining in your sense of self?

As it becomes increasingly unlikely that my kids or grand kids were or will be told this in the schools you have decimated, I am going to write it down for the record.

In my earliest school years, maybe fourth grade, I recall being told of why the founders of this country created the form of government they did. They understood implicitly not only that power corrupts, but that the corruptible are apt to seek power.

It goes something like this.

They looked at all of history and saw bloody tyrants far worse than the one they had been fighting, and cringed. Even the few benign despots were dismaying examples because of how shortly such rule lasted, for the most benign were frequently succeeded or replaced by tyrants. In all instances, there was corruption awaiting its opportunity to begin or increase.

The founders attempted to minimize the effects of the corruptible attaining power, so they sought to institute a non-violent method for the transfer of power. And not simply generation to generation, but from limited periods of time to the next.

Hence they created a republic. But not a republic of men; a republic with a constitution describing a limited number of positive duties and containing a list of powers that were proscribed: a constitutional republic.

From the very beginning there were men who carried on intrigues to garner power for themselves and their backers. Despite our founders best efforts, despite the checks and balances they built into this greatest republic that ever existed because it allowed the mind of man to flourish, you (and a few other misanthropic sociopaths who gamed the system now and before your time) have successfully schemed, finally, to negate it.

How do you illegitimates live with yourself?

More importantly, you realize that judgment day is coming, and your Judge will not be impressed. What profit you to gain the whole world yet lose your immortal soul? Even in a universe where you may be convinced that God does not exist, no matter how high you rise in your own estimation, you will have marked yourself forever as the scum of the earth.


4 comments:

  1. Those who profess nobless oblige

    Regress to droit de siegneur...

    ReplyDelete
  2. "More importantly, you realize that judgment day is coming, and your Judge will not be impressed. What profit you to gain the whole world yet lose your immortal soul? Even in a universe where you may be convinced that God does not exist..."

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    JC Pasc, are those your words? What the f are you talking about? Do you believe in a personal God or not?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Let me direct you to the answer for your second question first, Something Undeniable.

    I'll get to your first question soon enough.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What the f are you talking about?

    You're asking this question demonstrates that you can take my advice (as advised on my about page).

    Let us hope in it but the first in a long string where you taking my advice brings you joy. :)

    ————

    JC Pasc, are those your words? Do you believe in a personal God or not?

    Those are my words, and I do not profess belief in a personal God. What I know is that the concept of God exists and it is a useful concept as long as men don't attempt to use it to get over on other men.

    From a secular point of view, my warning stands the same as for a Christian or Jew, but these are worldly metaphors using the religious language.

    Because they think so highly of themselves, it is especially galling to those who deem themselves superhuman to hear such a line.

    Unless you feel you are one of them and not their target (or wish to protect them, but still be a potential target) it can serve as at least a mental shield for a non-believer. Should you find yourself confronted by real monsters, I suspect you might be thinking something like this even though you may fear saying it.

    This is my message to either Godless or God-warring übermenschen.

    Judgment day is the future.

    The judge is humanity.

    You will be seen as powerful but not human.

    You wished to be seen as godlike, but you will be seen as scum of the earth.

    It is not a talisman, it is not holy writ. It is a nugget of truth for the common man when confronted by inhumanity.

    ReplyDelete

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