Thomas stood on the mountain peak and turned toward the west. Before him lay all governments of the earth, from poor districts to great principalities, the domes of great capitol buildings rising above the smaller state houses and city halls. Within, Thomas could see diets and congresses, politburos and assemblies, parliaments and dictatorships, and the incredible amount of activity generated by the business of governing. And while there were great differences in style from one state to another, Thomas could see that there was a mundane consistency in the execution of the duties of state. Had there been one language and a single style of dress, he would not have been able to tell one from another.
‘The need for governing,’ Thomas meditated, ‘is that people have to live together in community, and governing regulates behaviors to prevent people from coming to harm.’
Looking over the governments of the earth Thomas saw that this need was not met, and in fact the governments had become the perpetrators of harm just as much as unprincipled individuals and corporate bodies. It only made sense: because people are imperfect they cannot run a perfect system of governing. A corporate body may have the pathologies that any individual can have, and thus there are governments that are paranoid, that are amotivationally depressed, that are sick with power.
“You see clearly,” said the Voice.
“To dwell on it is a cause of useless pain,” Thomas muttered half to himself. “There is little I can do.”
“Do not fail to see,” the Voice reminded him, “that there are many people of good heart and sound principles laboring in government, and but for them all the peoples of the earth would be subjected to the tyranny of corruption unending.”
Thomas was grateful at this.
“Yet why,” Thomas asked, “do corrupt people rise to the top? Why is it that some of the deepest, ageless philosophy comes from China yet they have too often been ruled by despotism? Why is it that communism, which should make all things economically fair between the people, ends up ruled by dictators who belie every principle of communism in their policies and actions? How does a democracy end up ruled by corporations, by the wealthy, by special interest groups rather than the will of the people?”
“Why is a dangerous question,” the Voice gently chided, “when a mind which is limited in knowledge fills empty places with assumption – and every human mind is limited -- yet for this time I will tell you. With minds capable of abstraction people choose to chase the seemingly ungraspable winds of control either within themselves or without. In the complexity of time, provinciality, individuality, and society there is ever a new generation thrust into the responsibility of governing. Those of sound principle only occasionally become the highest leaders, and it is their stability of purpose and effect which bring them there.”
“Yet you said that people either ‘control themselves within or without’,” Thomas mused. “Is it that those who do not work on controlling themselves become the most zealous controllers of others?”
“It is so, and those who at once fear their own impotence and cannot allow themselves to see it. In the act of governing other lives they hope to foster the illusion that they are in control of themselves; in the accumulation of power they breed the illusion that they are potent. Yet setting one's sights on others does nothing to address that which is within; no amount of controlling others, my child, will satisfy the desparate thirst for inner power. Their greatest weakness is the unquenchable fear of being discovered for the inadequacy that is masked.”
Thomas thought for a moment. “It would seem, then,” he said quietly, “that if every person governed themselves adequately there would be no need for a state government.”
“It is so.”
“And ‘no religion, too’.”
“Quite.” Thomas could hear the smile in the Voice.
“You believe there is little you can do,” the Voice suggested. “Yet we have already spoken to your belief. It is a very hard task, Thomas, for you to come to control yourself. It will occupy you for the rest of your life. And it is as a virus: infect others with the will to do the same and you will be serving me. Do not hate those who fear their impotence, rather see them with eyes of pity and loving, and both a will to instruct them and to guard against them until they are capable of controlling themselves. Approach them with invitation, not anger. And should they refuse to address their own fears you must quietly and diligently work with others of good principle to remove them from positions of power and influence, lest they harm others in their unending thirst for power. You do not know what you are capable of. Twenty years ago you did not know how a rabbet plane worked, yet it is now second nature.”
(To be continued)
