So correct me if I am wrong here my amigo, but what you are proposing is that you are relying on everyone to do the "right or correct" thing?
Originally Posted by: vikesrule
Not at all.
My point would be twofold: First, putting someone in the "government" doesn't increase the probability that they will do the "right or correct thing". Individuals are what they are. Putting them in government merely gives them power to decide things that they otherwise wouldn't be able to decide. Second, power to those who would not do "correct" is like light to a moth. The power that state action represents attracts those who would control the decisions of others, those who do not trust others to make choices on their own behalf.
That's what makes it such an insidious temptress. We all wish others would behave differently. Sometimes this is because we see things better than the others do. More often, however, we simply don't see the problems with our own way of behaving. Political empowerment simply encourages us in our arrogance and our delusion.
People won't always do the right thing. People can and will be vain, self-absorbed, stupid, ignorant, short-sighted, wrong-headed, unthinking, corrupt, and delusional. Man is fallen.
Giving more of us the opportunity to govern merely makes it easier for us to give vent to our vanities, our self-absorptions, our stupidities, our ignorances, our short-sightednesses, our wrong-headednesss, our unthinking characters, our corruptions, and our delusions.
Some government is, alas, a necessity for us. But it is also a necessity that necessarily brings with it evil. We ought never to forget that. We may need to accept a smaller evil to prevent a larger one from time to time. But we ought not to embrace what inherently appeals to the fallen and corruptible in all of us as our default mechanism.
Caesar cannot be avoided. But that doesn't mean he should be embraced. Much less emulated.
We who would elevate "the people" to Caesar are embracing Nero as inevitable.
Treating the state as a jack-of-all-trades problem solver merely strengthens the temptations we ought to be resisting. And it takes us from being fallen toward being evil.
It takes us in the wrong direction.
I don't rely on people to "do the right thing." I simply recognize that giving a person the imprimatur of Caesar makes it no more likely that he will do the right thing, and probably makes it less likely.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)