The Disposition of Power III

Richard Bland wrote in 1766, “Right and power have very different meanings, and convey very different
ideas. Power abstracted from right cannot give just a title to dominion, nor is it possible legitimately, or
even logically, to build right upon power.” When the two are intermingled, when brutal power becomes
an irresistible argument of boundless right, as it has over the centuries, as a consequence, innocence
and justice merely sighed and quietly submitted to the ruthless cruelty of authoritarians and dictators.
Political power is not necessarily evil, though it is too often used as a means to such an end, Putin’s
Russia and Xi’s China are two extreme examples. But it has genuine fundamentals, especially when used
in a compact, or contract, with mutual consent; the pledges between individuals in which volunteered
restrictions are accepted for the benefit of all parties. From such actions, a society arises from nature to
create a government to serve as a trusted custodian of the power that logically and fundamentally
derives from the experiences of the People. As John Adams wrote, “skulking about in corners, liberty,
always weak, always defensive, is always hunted and persecuted in all countries by cruel power,” yet it is
essentially found naturally within each individual becoming their distinctive possession and awareness of
self – that being individualism. Though for early Americans, as it is for many, but not all today, liberty was
not ostensibly an interest or concern for everyone, for the stewards of power did not, and continue to
not address it for the reason that they do not serve it. Their interest and concerns are purely for the use
and development of additional power, centralized to only a few, thereby becoming tormentors who
come to first control and then to punish the People for doing what is natural to them, turning power into
a malignancy prone to hunger, depravity, and excessive ambition.
When weak, ignorant, or morally depraved individuals are entrusted with power, there will be
widespread uncertainty, for such restlessness will make people frivolous, unproductive, and deprive
them of what was once before and may not be again. Cherished Rights will be stripped, or restricted,
changes to laws, and not for the better, will occur and privileges granted or taken away. These individuals
who will look upon themselves as born to govern, and others to merely obey, will quickly become
disrespectful and bad mannered. Chosen from the rest of society, their minds will be poisoned early in
life by importance; and the world they act in, one that differs so materially from the world at large, they
will have little opportunity of knowing its true interests, it’s true purpose, and when they achieve and
become part of the government or its bureaucracy, they will frequently, and most arrogantly become
overwhelmed by the temptations of power and its corrupting influences, intoxicating as it will be, and
become someone which they taught themselves so well for so long to be – a tyrant, unfit as any
throughout the materialistic world.
Aristotle wrote:
“The three aims of the tyrant are, ­ one, the humiliation of his subjects; he knows that a mean­spirited
man will not conspire against anybody; ­ two, the creation of mistrust among them; for a tyrant is not to
be overthrown until men begin to have confidence in one another ­­ and this is the reason why tyrants
are at war with the good; they are under the idea that their power is endangered by them, not only
because they will not be ruled despotically, but also because they are too loyal to one another and to
other men, and do not inform against one another or against other men ­ three, the tyrant desires that
all his subjects shall be incapable of action, for no one attempts what is impossible and they will not
attempt to overthrow a tyranny if they are powerless.”
He also wrote an antonym:
“The high­minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.”
­ Aristotle