Tutelary

Tutelary

A tutelary or tutelar as a source of Tutor is a ruling judge, god or deity with a spirit of a guardian, patron, or protector, or provider of a particular person or people. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety and thus of patrimonial guardianship.

A "tutelary god" may have been represented by the image of a god that had the giving character desired but it was also an office of authority over the distribution of grain to the needy in Sumer and the public welfare in Rome under the emperors.

This became a source of accumulating civil power in societies through the people's dependence upon the "legal charity" offered by the "benefactors" of the State. These systems were often managed through the temples that was represented by or personified by a "tutelary deity" of social justice and social welfare as we see in the religion of Sumer or the Temple of Diana in Ephesus.

Caesar as the Son of God was the ultimate tutelary power of Rome who provided the free bread of Rome through the legal charity of that State. The same was true of Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh which always bring the people into thecaptivity of the bondage of Egypt.

They held the genius of the people or masses as the Patronus of society. They had authority over their right to choose, what the Greeks call exousia. These patrons or protectors with their granted patrimonial powers were the "fathers of the earth" to whom Christ said not to pray to for your daily bread.

They were rulers but called themselves benefactors and entangled the people in a civil yoke of bondage through their tables and dainties of legal charity of public religion.

The difference between legal charity and pure Religion was at the heart of the Christian conflict with Rome.

Tutelary despotism

Alexis de Tocqueville writes:

“Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?

"Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.

"After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

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• “I want to imagine with what new features of despotism could be produced in the world: I see an innumerable crowd of like and equal men who revolve on themselves without repose, procuring the small and vulgar pleasures with which they fill their souls. Each of them, withdrawn and apart, is like a stranger to the destiny of all the others: his children and his particular friends from the whole human species for him; as for dwelling with his fellow citizens, he is beside them, but he does not see them, he exists only in himself and for himself alone, and if a family still remains for him, one can at least say that he no longer has a native country.”

“Above these an immense tutelary power is elevated, which alone takes charge of assuring their enjoyments and watch over their fate. It is absolute, detailed, regular, far-seeing, and mild. It would resemble paternal power if, like that, it had for its object to prepare men for manhood; but on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them fixed irrevocably in childhood; it likes citizens to enjoy themselves provided that they think only of enjoying themselves. It willingly works for their happiness; but it wants to be the unique agent and sole arbiter of that; it provides for their security, foresees and secures their needs, facilitates their pleasure, conducts their principal affairs, direct industry, regulates their estates, divides their inheritances; can it not take away from them entirely the trouble of thinking and the pain of living?”

“So it is that every day it renders the employment of free will less useful and more rare; it confines the action of the will in a smaller space and little by little steals the very use of free will from each citizen. Equality has prepared men for all these things: it has disposed them to tolerate them and often even regard them as a benefit.”

“Thus, after taking each individual by turns in its powerful hands and neading him as it likes, the sovereign extends its arms over society as a whole; it covers its surface with a network of small, complicated, painstaking, uniform rules through which the most original minds and the most vigourous souls cannot clear a way to surpass the crowd; it does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them, and directs them; it rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one's acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes, and industrious animals of which the government is the shepherd.” ” Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, Chapter 6 What kind of Despotism Democratic Nations have to Fear, p667

Soft despotism

• "After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp, and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, 'til each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." Alexis de Tocqueville, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 302 (Richard D. Heffner ed., The New American Library 1956) (1838). page 304.

• "They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principles of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons but the people at large, who hold the end of his chain. By this system, the people shake off their state of dependence just long enough to select their master, and then relapse into it again." Alexis de Tocqueville

• "A great many persons at the present day are quite contented with this sort of com-promise between administrative despotism and the sovereignty of the people; and they think they have done enough for the protection of individual freedom when they have surrendered it to the power of the nation at large. This does not satisfy me: the nature of him I am to obey signifies less to me than the fact of extorted obedience.'" Alexis de Tocqueville

“Despotism, suspicious by its very nature, views the separation of men as the best guarantee of its own permanence and usually does all it can to keep them in isolation. No defect of the human heart suits it better than egoism; a tyrant is relaxed enough to forgive his subjects for failing to love him, provided they do not love one another. He does not ask them to help him to govern the state; it is enough that they have no intention of managing it themselves. He calls those who claim to unite their efforts to create general prosperity “turbulent and restless spirits” and, twisting the normally accepted meaning of the words, he gives the name of “good citizens” to those who retreat into themselves.”
“Thus the vices fostered by tyranny are exactly those supported by equality. These two things are complementary and mutually supportive, with fatal results.” Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America, by Alexis de Tocqueville

Straight for the soul

• “Princes made violence a physical thing, but today’s democratic republics have made it as intellectual as the human will it seeks to coerce. Under the absolute government of one man, despotism tried to reach the soul by striking crudely at the body; and the soul, eluding such blows, rose gloriously above it. Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way, however. It ignores the body and goes straight for the soul. The master no longer says: You will think as I do or die. He says: You are free not to think as I do. You may keep your life, your property, and everything else. But from this day forth you shall be as a stranger among us. You will retain your civic privileges, but they will be of no use to you. For if you seek the votes of your fellow citizens, they will withhold them, and if you seek only their esteem, they will feign to refuse even that. You will remain among men, but you will forfeit your rights to humanity. When you approach your fellow creatures, they will shun you as one who is impure. And even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they, too, be shunned in turn. Go in peace, I will not take your life, but the life I leave you with is worse than death.” ― Alexis de Tocqueville

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