Template:Tyrant
Marcus Aurelius was a stoic who was praised by some as a leader of a golden age yet had one of the worst human rights records when it came to persecuting early Christians. What did this pupil of the stoicism of Antonio Pius miss or what could he not see? Why were his eyes darkened?[1]
Tyranny
Tyranny is the cruel and oppressive government or rule.
According to Black's Law Dictionary it is the "Arbitrary or despotic government; the severe and autocratic exercise of sovereign power, either vested constitutionally in one ruler, or usurped by him by breaking down the division and distribution of governmental powers."
That is very similar to Webster's 1828 dictionary which defines tyranny as:
1. Arbitrary or despotic exercise of power; the exercise of power over subjects and others with a rigor not authorized by law or justice, or not requisite for the purposes of government. Hence tyranny is often synonymous with cruelty and oppression.
2. Cruel government or discipline; as the tyranny of a master.
3. Unresisted and cruel power.
4. Absolute monarchy cruelly administered.
5. Severity; rigor; inclemency.
While rulers may be cruel and oppressive and earn the name of tyrant we should ask ourselves who actually has been "breaking down the division and distribution of governmental powers" and who has been consolidating that power by design or by desire?
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” ― James Madison, Federalist Papers
In America at one time there was a government of the people, for the people and by the people [2] in which the individual enjoyed liberty under God in what was called a Republic. In such a government the welfare of our neighbor's was dependent upon charity, not upon the power of Government.
"Charity is reaching into one's own pockets to assist his fellow man in need. Reaching into someone else's pocket to assist one's fellow man hardly qualifies as charity. When done privately, we deem it theft, and the individual risks jail time." Walter E. Williams: Charity is not a function of the U.S. government.
Today, the people are dependent almost entirely upon Legal charity and the welfare State while the Modern Church has become impotent in the exercise of pure Religion through the perfect law of liberty and The Way of Christ.
This was a long time coming and seldom begins with the rise of a single tyrant nor despot. Despotism begins in the hearts and minds of the people when they are slothful in the exercise of their responsibility imposed by God to love their neighbor at least as much as they love themselves. Without the exercise of responsibility the exercise of rights will soon be curtailed if not eliminated.
Cicero's reason
- “True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions… It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely. We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it. And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and at all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is God, over us all, for he is the author of this law, its promulgator and its enforcing judge. Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst punishment.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
It is not right reason that one man or a group of men can take away or even desire to take away the rights of others without bringing their own rights in jeopardy. It is the tyrant in every man's soul that gives rise to the tyranny of the world in which they live. As Polybius wrote before Cicero was born:
"The masses continue with an appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force and violence. The people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others... institute the rule of violence; [3] and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder,[4] until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch." [5] [6]
- Polybius saw the downfall of the republic by way of their free bread and welfare a 150 years before the first Emperor of Rome and 175 years before the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ who opposed these same systems of free bread at your neighbor's expense.
- The authoritarian State often uses force and violence to become the Benefactors of the people if the covet what is their neighbors'. They make a social contract where one class of citizen is forced to provide for another class through "legal charity" which is not true charity. The writings of the Apostles warned along with countless passages of ancient writings of the prophets including Proverbs 23 which warned them about what Christ forbid which was the covetous practices of socialist forms of government.
Tyranny quotes
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." C. S. Lewis
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." Thomas Jefferson
"The most unresolved problem of the day is precisely the problem that concerned the founders of this nation: how to limit the scope and power of government." Milton Friedman
"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse." James Madison
"The concentrating of powers in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one." Thomas Jefferson
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." Thomas Jefferson
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive." Thomas Jefferson
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” Thomas Jefferson
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” Thomas Jefferson
"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery." Thomas Jefferson
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton
There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice. Montesquieu
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." Edmund Burke
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson
"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty." Plato
"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant." Maximilien Robespierre
"The tyranny of Communism is as old as the Pharaohs and the Pyramids - that the State stands above all men and their individual aspirations." Robert Kennedy
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." James Madison
"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who posses it; and this I know, my lords: that where law ends, tyranny begins." William Pitt
“As long as we look to government to solve our problems we will always suffer tyranny.” William Pitt, Prime Minister of Great Britain
“If we will not be governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
"A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny." Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst." Thomas Paine
“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” 2 Peter 2:3
“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” 2 Peter 2 :19
"Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry."
- ↑ Eyes darkened. Psalms 69:23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
- Ecclesiastes 2:14 The wise man’s eyes [are] in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
- Romans 11:10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
- 1 John 2:10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
- John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
- John 12:40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with [their] eyes, nor understand with [their] heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
- Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, [and] to turn [them] from darkness to light, and [from] the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
- ↑ Is the Bible about religion which it seldom mentions only once in a good way as Pure Religion or is it about governments and law including Natural Law? "This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People." is attributed to the General Prologue to the John Wycliffe Bible translation of 1384, as Lincoln quoted at Gettysburg.
- ↑ Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
- ↑ Luke 16:16 The law and the prophets [were] until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
- ↑ "But when a new generation arises and the democracy falls into the hands of the grandchildren of its founders, they have become so accustomed to freedom and equality that they no longer value them, and begin to aim at pre-eminence; and it is chiefly those of ample fortune who fall into this error. 6 So when they begin to lust for power and cannot attain it through themselves or their own good qualities, they ruin their estates, tempting and corrupting the people in every possible way. 7 And hence when by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created among the masses an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them, democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence. 8 For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from the houses of office by his penury, institute the rule of violence; 9 and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch." Polybius: The Histories (composed at Rome around 130 BC)Fragments of Book at Loeb's classic library, or see our comparison of translations at Polybius#Translations_compare
- ↑ An alternate translation in context, "9. For no sooner had the knowledge of the jealousy and hatred existing in the citizens against them which is replaced by democracy, emboldened some one to oppose the government by word or deed, than he was sure to find the whole people ready and prepared to take his side. Having then got rid of these rulers by assassination or exile, they do not venture to set up a king again, being still in terror of the injustice to which this led before; nor dare they intrust the common interests again to more than one, considering the recent example of their misconduct: and therefore, as the only sound hope left them is that which depends upon themselves, they are driven to take refuge in that; and so changed the constitution from an oligarchy to a democracy, and took upon themselves the superintendence and charge of the state. And as long as any survive who have had experience of oligarchical supremacy and domination, they regard their present constitution as a blessing, and hold equality and freedom as of the utmost value. But as soon as a new generation has arisen, and the democracy has descended to their children’s children, long association weakens their value for equality and freedom, and some seek to become more powerful than the ordinary citizens; and the most liable to this temptation are the rich. (which degenerates into rule of corruption and violence, only to be stopped by a return to despotism.) So when they begin to be fond of office, and find themselves unable to obtain it by their own unassisted efforts and their own merits, they ruin their estates, while enticing and corrupting the common people in every possible way. By which means when, in their senseless mania for reputation, they have made the populace ready and greedy to receive bribes, the virtue of democracy is destroyed, and it is transformed into a government of violence and the strong hand. For the mob, habituated to feed at the expense of others, and to have its hopes of a livelihood in the property of its neighbours, as soon as it has got a leader sufficiently ambitious and daring, being excluded by poverty from the sweets of civil honours, produces a reign of mere violence. Then come tumultuous assemblies, massacres, banishments, redivisions of land; until, after losing all trace of civilisation, it has once more found a master and a despot." Translator: Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, Release Date: November 8, 2013 [EBook #44126]