Tyrants seem
to believe that “good” is defined as what they the rulers are, what they
believe, and what they do. Leaders of free people define “good” as “what God
has declared is right,” given in the revelation of scripture and upheld by a
righteous people who mostly govern themselves. The tyrant claims goodness and
perfection embodied in the ruler. The free people recognize the limits of human
nature, including the corrupting influence of power, and therefore limit the
power of any leader over the people.
The tyrant
believes in classes, with certain strata being privileged while others are
deprived of privileges. The free people believe that all people are created
equal and are guaranteed certain inalienable rights given by God.
So it might
be possible to measure a ruler (leader, or potential leader) based on the
person’s belief in God, adherence to God’s law (try looking first at the Ten
Commandments), and whether the person puts himself above the people being led.
Have there
been good kings, historically? You can probably find a few. But if they were
good, they followed God’s laws, which naturally bring the most freedom to all.
And the people ruled by them were simply lucky, during that temporary rule,
because righteous kings are not nearly as common as the alternative.
There’s a
quote from Mark Twain’s A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court that I have long found useful:
Unlimited
power is the ideal thing when it is in safe hands. The despotism of heaven is
the one absolutely perfect government. An earthly despotism would be the
absolutely perfect earthly government, if the conditions were the same, namely,
the despot the perfectest individual of the human race, and his lease of life
perpetual. But as a perishable perfect man must die, and leave his despotism in
the hands of an imperfect successor, an earthly despotism is not merely a bad
form of government, it is the worst form that is possible (Chapter X, “Beginnings
of Civilization”).
I happened
upon a chapter of scripture yesterday that makes a similar claim and goes on to
detail some of the difficulty of getting out from under such a tyrant, and
therefore recommends choosing leaders by the voice of the people:
13 Now it is
better that a man should be judged of God than of man, for the judgments of God
are always just, but the judgments of man are not always just.
14 Therefore,
if it were possible that you could have just men to be your kings, who would
establish the laws of God, and judge this people according to his commandments,…
if this could always be the case then it would be expedient that ye should
always have kings to rule over you….
16 Now I say
unto you, that because all men are not just it is not expedient that ye should
have a king or kings to rule over you.
17 For
behold, how much iniquity doth one wicked king cause to be committed, yea, and
what great destruction!...
21 And
behold, now I say unto you, ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous king save it be
through much contention, and the shedding of much blood.
22 For
behold, he has his friends in iniquity, and he keepeth his guards about him;
and he teareth up the laws of those who have reigned in righteousness before
him; and he trampleth under his feet the commandments of God;
23 And he
enacteth laws and sendeth them forth among his people, yea, laws after the
manner of his own wickedness; and whosoever doth not obey his laws he causeth
to be destroyed; and whosoever doth rebel against him he will send his armies
against them to war and if he can he will destroy them; and thus an unrighteous
king doth pervert the ways of all righteousness….
25 Therefore,
choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according
to the laws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and
which were given them by the hand of the Lord.
26 Now it is
not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that
which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire
that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to
do your business by the voice of the people. (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 29)
We live in what is designed to be a free country. The
founders strictly limited government power to best protect our God-given
rights. But we are seeing that, even with the written guarantees, it is the
tendency of leaders to usurp power—especially when they don’t see the full
vision of prosperity that God has offered us. If they are closed to viewing
only the southern hemisphere, with the alternatives of either statist tyranny
or the tyranny of chaos, they put themselves forward to have power over others as
the alternative to others having power over them. They are blind to the variety
of happiness our founders meant to make permanent.
It took the Declaration of Independence, followed by a long
and bloody Revolutionary War, followed by some trial and error leading to the
Constitutional Convention that brought about our miraculous American experiment
in freedom. As we see that slipping away, how do we regain the freedom, without
a similar convergence of education and resolve within a righteous people? I don’t
know. I don’t think it’s possible. For now, the beginning of an answer is to be
personally righteous, educated in truth, and resolved to stand firm—and then
hope that our vision spreads. It is a time to try our souls.
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