Post date: Aug 22, 2018 8:31:1 PM
possible blog post
"We want a king like the other nations" the Israelites of Bible times whined. Nevermind that God had already given them something better. As Americans we smugly nod, because we already knew kings are a bad idea. We made it official in 1776. They are oppressive, unrepresentative, and keep things from progressing. The "dark ages" taught us that. Kings like control. They control people, they control property, and they control wealth and opportunity and destiny.
But as it turned out, we never really got rid of kings in this country. We just got rid of one. In his place, we decided the way to go was for EVERYBODY to be a king (starting, initially, with White land-owning men). The theory has some attraction. If we spread out sovereignty among everyone we are less likely to end up with a tyrant. If we rely on procedures to decide things, then we aren't subject to arbitrary will. If we make it up ourselves, our destiny isn't in the hands of another.
What we ended up with may turn out to be far worse. We have to live with the tyranny of the Individual, cultural preoccupations like bureaucracies, technologies, and laws that dehumanize, and the awful burden of determining our own identity, then actualizing ourselves, then living with an idol that can't deliver.
What happens when we control our own destiny? Ironically, we tend to behave as much like kings as possible. We set things up to control property. We own our own little kingdom. Dan, in ... sacred vs. owned. We appropriated property of others. Kings control people. We tried that, too. We institutionalized the private ownership of other people through slavery. Even though that was abolished, we are still invested in controlling others...workplace.... We also insist on the sovereign disposition of our own wealth.