“People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”—George Orwell
There is a tale, “The Ring of Gyges,” that comes from Plato’s Republic. One of Socrates’ students, a man named Glaucon, offered the story in response to a lesson by Socrates, who argued that people are basically good and will do the right thing if they know the right thing to do. (“Give people light and they will find their own way” is the post-modern equivalent.)
Glaucon disagreed, and told a story about a shepherd, Gyges, who stumbled upon a cave with a corpse inside that was wearing a magic ring. When Gyges put on the ring, it made him invisible. (Tolkien, of course, had this story in mind when he wrote The Lord of the Rings.) With no one to monitor his behavior, Gyges went on a personal crime spree, unfettered by the law and its custodians
Glaucon’s story poses a question: Will we resist the temptation to do evil if we know that our actions will not be observed and restrained? Glaucon was convinced that we will not. In that, he was in line with all the biblical writers, who insist that there is in every one of us a tendency to do evil and unless that tendency is restrained it will express itself in acts of evil (Romans 3:23). Thus, there is a need for “rough men” to protect us from the evil in us and in others.
So Peter writes, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good” (1 Peter 2:12-14).
Certainly, if the authorities compel us to act contrary to the will of God we must respectfully disobey. Furthermore, the authorities must themselves have restraints for the same forces that lead to lawlessness in us reside in them. But the concept of just authority is consistent with the biblical view of the depravity of the human race (Romans 3:23). To do away with these “rough men” who do violence on our behalf is to unleash the dark, spiritual forces of anarchy and terror. “Do (we) really think (we) can stand upright in the winds that will blow then?” (Sir Thomas More).
David Roper
6.11.21
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