Divine Right to Intellect

     But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?  Show me the coin used for paying the tax.”  They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this?  And whose inscription?”
     “Caesar’s,” they replied.
     Then he said to them, “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
-Matthew 22:18-21

     Yes, I have a new format.  Seeing as how the Bible is the basis for my most deeply held beliefs, I have decided to use a quote from it to not only relate a sentiment behind my post, but also to testify to those who read it.  I have a lot of things that I have skipped over in the past week.  I would first like to chastise society as a whole for demeaning certain days and stripping them of their intentions, but seen as how I let another MLK day slip by for the second year in a row I can’t do so in good conscience.  I also wanted to post about New Year’s resolutions, but I decided to break my procrastination resolution less than a day into the new year.  And now I’m about to break my resolution of not having excessively long posts.  Before I really get into it, I did celebrate the birthday of one of my favorite American philosophers, Ben Franklin, by studying his life and some of his works.  I did not, however, finish the post I had planned for his January 17 birthday.  It’s gonna be a long year.
     Anyways, today I’d like to muse on divine right.  I know that it is a belief that is not officially held in any modern government, save for the celebrity positions within the British Royal Family, but the principle still exists.  I know that in the church I grew up in it was a very common ideal.  To this day it is not uncommon for me to hear my parents use the excuse of, “If God didn’t want the government to exist as it is it wouldn’t,” to dodge hard political debate.  While I do believe that God’s will is forever enduring, I don’t believe that is an excuse for the lack of involvement in your government’s decisions.  For one thing, government has changed significantly since the times of the Roman Empire.  I believe that God expects us to give the government what it deserves, but not necessarily what it demands.  It is also worth mentioning that in the aforementioned verse Jesus might not have been advocating Caesar, but rather indirectly suggesting that rather than pay taxes to a corrupt government the Jewish people give up all Roman currency and worldly possessions and focus more intently on God.  Indeed, it would seem that theology is becoming a lost art in a world of increasing wealth.  But the funny thing about my parents’ argument is that is used in defense of policies which they agree with.  They most commonly use it to dismiss any ideas which would oppose their policies.  I think it will be very interesting to see what they think of divine right when politicians they don’t agree with take office.  The point is that divine right is a way of protecting ignorance.  It was first used in Christianity by King Saul, the first king of Israel.  In a time long after Moses and the Israeli resettlement of Canaan, Samuel was the spiritual leader of the Israelites.  As chronicled in 1 Samuel, he appointed his two sons to be judges of Israel as he grew older.  But his sons were corrupt and Israel asked for a king like the other nations had.  Through Samuel God warned them that by doing so they were forsaking him as their king.  He warned them that their king would tax, conscript, and indenture them and that when they asked God to help them he would not heed their calls.  They agreed, and God chose Saul as their King.  He was anointed, and so began the legacy of divine right.  After the reign of King Solomon Israel split into two kingdoms; Israel, which was eventually captured by Assyria, and Judah, which was captured by Babylon.  In both cases the Jewish people were subject to harsh treatment.  They were initially slaves in both cases, but were released from slavery by the Persian King Cyrus.  The Jews have since never served under an earthly king.  They rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem and remained a factor in political proceedings in the region ever since.  Jerusalem was under Roman rule at the time of Jesus Christ.  During the Middle Ages divine right was used as a means of keeping people under the control of their king.  If divine right was a commonly held belief in a kingdom, than any dissention from the king was blasphemy.  In today’s conservative social circles it takes on much the same form.  The Christian part of these circles silences any dissention by appealing to the theory of divine right, and most commonly Saint Paul’s writings on the subject.  Paul argued that corrupt governments were God’s way of punishing sinners, though many argue on the true intentions of his writings.  Indeed, Paul’s writings are the basis for some of the most controversial dogma present in organized religion today.  Personally, I believe government is to be respected, but only if that respect is well deserved.  I believe that government exists to serve the people, not the other way around.  I think that distinction is becoming more and more blurred as our government use an increasing amount of scare tactics and propaganda to bolster public support for hidden agendas.  I believe big brother and an ever expanding economy are leading to the downfall of America as it exists in the Declaration of Independence.  But most importantly I believe that we have the right to question our government.  I believe that everything happens for a reason.  God allows corrupt government to exist, just as he allows our brains to function in a way as to not be complete pawns to it.  If God allows corrupt leaders to lead, then he also allows intellectuals with good intentions to question.  I also believe that God takes a more passive role in today’s society.  He no longer works through plagues and floods, but through people who have the integrity to question.  If we willingly allow ourselves to be at the mercy of a corrupt government then, like the Israelites, we have no one to blame but ourselves.  I’ll leave you with this thought, “I know why you’re here, Neo.  I know what you’ve been doing, why you hardly sleep.  You’re looking for him.  I know because I was once looking for the same thing.  And when he found me, he told me I wasn’t really looking for him.  I was looking for an answer.  It’s the question that drives us.”-Trinity, from The Matrix.

Red with Envy

Hello, and welcome to the Eric News Network, bringing you all the news and completely biased commentary from my haze of a life.  In case you’ve been out of the loop, the ENN has been inactive for the past few months because of unforeseen changes in my drinking pattern, which has gone from casual social to kill the pain before it kills you.  OK, maybe it’s not that bad, but I can’t remember anything that happened before I woke up from my last binge so how would I know?  Anyways, I’m reporting to you today from the major cause of my recent spike in B.A.L., my job.  You’ve probably heard all the gruesome details so for those few of you who are uninformed, I’ll sum it up in one short sentence: My bosses suck major donkey dick.  You see, Pat, if your yearly salary triples that of a broke-ass college student you have no right to talk to him about money problems.  Thanks, John [flicks off security camera].  Now, I didn’t do that last part just to piss off my boss, should she happen to watch the security tapes.  I did it to prove a point.  Should my boss happen to see that, she would be very pissed off.  The reason why is more elusive than you would think.  It’s not because I’m being disrespectful, it’s because she’s scared.  You see, in this country money=power.  She has become very comfortable with this equation and enjoys her power over those who have less money than she, i.e. her employees.  If you don’t believe me, just take a look at me.  I hate kissing fuckhead customers’ asses all day long for her, but I do it because I need her money.  She, therefore, has control of my actions because of this.  The only problem is that I realize and lament this.  My lament is embodied in my attitude of casual hate towards the people I view as the cause of it.  Most people in my same position casually accept their fate, but I resist it.  I refuse to completely give in, and this shatters my boss’ illusion of complete control.  That is why she is angry.  My point is that money is nothing but control.  In theory, it is a way of motivation, a way to keep all the gears of a successful society running as they should.  But those who realize this learn how to manipulate it, and class separation is born.  You have the wealthy, using their wealth as a piece of cheese at the end of a stick that’s tied to the back of the mouse that is the rest of society.  The middle class tries as it might to get the cheese, but it’s always out of reach.  The lower class tries, but realizes the setbacks that prevent them from actually getting the cheese.  They more or less strive for the hope that their children might chase the cheese in the middle class and maybe, just maybe, their grandchildren or their children just might get that elusive piece of cheese.  Then you have the scattered people such as myself who say fuck that cheese, there must be some better smelling cheese out there.  Now you may say that’s America for ya, but I say no, that reminds me of somewhere else.  Now this place is really taboo in American culture, and has been since the 40’s.  It had another system of economy that was run by enticing its citizens with promises.  There was a slight difference.  In America we motivate our citizens with the prospect of becoming rich, what I like to call greatness of one.  In this place they stressed the greatness of the country, or motherland.  Their economy was controlled by the elite, aristocrats and corrupt government officials.  There was hope of becoming one of these elite, but only by becoming a particularly impressive pawn, and even then you’d be nothing more than a very rich pawn.  Here in America, you can’t get rich without bringing in revenue for the big guys.  There’s this little something called taxes, ring a bell?  And we all know the more you make the more Uncle Sam makes.  No matter how much money you make America’s wealth increases proportionately.  In this other place, there was massive class separation.  There were the aforementioned elite, and under them were their rich pawns who aspired to become one of them.  Then there were the laborers, who were born into a world of toiling for their well being and could only hope to provide a better life for their children than their ancestors did for them.  Now there are a lot of reasons for this union’s collapse.  One could argue it was their abuse of power or their crumbling economy, or a combination of these and a number of other problems could all explain its downfall, but one thing’s for sure, their inability to hide their intentions from everyone and America’s uncanny ability to do so has probably left this union’s remaining supporters red with envy.  Remember, freedom is a privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility.  Sanity, on the other hand, is a gift, don’t squander it.