Forms of Tyranny

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The word "tyranny" is not at all unfamiliar to most of us. When we hear the word I believe we typically have an image of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot or some other despot flash across our mental TV screen. To be sure, these dictators are fully qualified to be described as tyrants however, I believe there are other, perhaps more sinister, forms of tyranny in our world. As a freedom loving American I also believe that our nation was founded with the express intentions of overcoming tyranny. In the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence the words "despotism" and "tyranny" make a prominent appearance and it is this that the colonies were rejecting and trying to throw off. Of course, the tyrant that was bearing the greatest guilt at the time was the King of Britain but it would seem logical that the Founding Fathers were rejecting all forms of tyranny and despotism. What I would like to do here is outline what I believe are some of the forms of tyranny that we see in the world. Some of these we have experienced in our nation, others are ones we may potentially see if we are not careful.

1. Philosophical tyranny
Philosophical tyranny is perhaps the root of all the other forms. This occurs when one idea is forced upon people at the expense of any other. Currently we see this most vividly in some branches of academia. More and more the materialistic, naturalistic worldview is crammed down the throats of students and faculty across Western Civilization. Once Charles Darwin published his Origin of the Species a new, godless, option became available to humanity. This relieved millions of people of the pesky problem of a higher power. Now this worldview has become standard in many, many academic institutions at the expense of theistic or supernatural worldviews. The argument is that this frees people for true academic and scientific inquiry. The problem is that inquiry is only seen as honest and acceptable when the conclusions match up with the naturalistic presuppositions. Should a professor or scientist look at the evidence and conclude that there is some likelihood that God exists they are promptly black-listed and pushed to the lunatic fringe of their field. As I have written in a previous post this extends to students being made to disrespect their own religious beliefs. As Ben Stein has shown, theism has been effectively "expelled" from the academic and scientific realm. The basis for academic and scientific inquiry and study is to look at the evidence and allow that to lead one to the conclusion. In our society this is not so much the case. Therefore, I believe we are living in a time of philosophical tyranny. This is certainly not what our nation was founded upon.

2. Media tyranny
This one should be plainly obvious to anyone who has watched or followed the mainstream media in the past decade or so. There seems to be a singular narrative that the media is trying to foist upon the American people. This narrative is leftist, intolerant, hateful, unjust and protectionist. If a different opinion is voiced it is quickly demonized and mocked. There was a time when the goal of the news media was to uncover the truth about whatever topic was at hand. This has shifted to pushing a certain agenda at the expense of the truth. Let me offer a couple of examples.

Same-sex marriage: There should be no question as to where the media stands on this issue. As a whole they are strongly in favor of allowing homosexuals to be married. The opposing position, that homosexuals should not be allowed to marry and that it is an inappropriate lifestyle, is never given a fair shake in the media. Those who are against the idea, evangelical Christians particularly, are never allowed to voice their disagreement with any degree of fairness. Rather, they are instantly and emphatically labeled as "homophobic" and "bigots." I don't know of any major media outlet where a Christian has been given the opportunity to defend their position. The fact is, the Christian position should be, "We do not hate homosexuals. In fact, we love them in the same way that God loves them. We don't want to kill them, beat them or in any way harm them. We also believe that they have claim to all the other rights due to humans. However, we will not affirm their lifestyle in any fashion." To discover that Christians love and care for homosexuals, perhaps more than anyone else, would not fit the media's narrative and, therefore, it is squashed.

Gun rights: Again, the media's position on this issue should be as plain as the nose on your face. Any evidence that pro-gun advocates put forward is quickly denied or ignored. Why? Because it does not fit the narrative. What is that narrative? Guns make people do bad things and hurt other people. This one, more than any other, just flies in the face of reason. There has never been a case in which a gun did something evil without a person controlling it. There are millions of Americans who carry a gun every day and they are far more likely to stop evil from happening that do evil themselves. However, the media has convinced the sheep in our society that guns are the root of all evil and must be abolished. This is foolishness of the highest order.

We may be living in a time of media tyranny but there is some hope. Our speech is still Constitutionally protected and we have at our disposal the ability to write blogs, start websites and find other ways to offer an opposing opinion to the mainstream media that is holding the American public hostage. That means we must flood the internet and airwaves with the truth and fight back against this tyrannical dictator known as the media.

3. Religious tyranny
This form of tyranny goes hand-in-glove with philosophical tyranny. If the academic and scientific communities are guilty of being tyrannical because of their rejection of religious worldviews the opposite can also be true. Thankfully we do not see this on a grand scale in our nation. There are certainly groups and sects within our society that are religiously tyrannical but it has not yet become a nationwide problem. However, it can be seen in certain other nations where Sharia Law is the law of the land, or in places where the caste system is still alive and well. To insure against this type of tyranny the Founding Fathers wrote freedom of religion into the Bill of Rights. This allows for people of all faiths to practice their beliefs freely up to the point that they begin to harm other citizens. Even as a committed Christian I am in no way in favor of the United States being and officially "Christian" nation. Nowhere in the Gospel are we given the directive to force our convictions on other people. We are commanded to stand firm in on our convictions but conversion by the sword is not in the Gospel. This form of tyranny is perhaps the most dangerous because it is dealing with eternity and a God who does not appreciate the perversion of His message.

4. Political Tyranny
Political tyranny is the form that we are most familiar with and it is the one that the Founding Fathers had in view when they broke from Great Britain. While it is the most obvious it is also the one Americans are most likely to miss. Anytime the government overreaches the limits set forth first by God and then by the Constitution it is becoming more tyrannical. Even a brief look at the Constitution will show you that our form of government was designed to be extraordinarily limited. Unfortunately, inch by inch our government has grown into the ravenous beast that it is today. First the authority of the individual states was stripped from them (No, I am not suggesting even for a moment that the Civil War should have turned out differently) and now the rights of the people are being infringed. Make no mistake about it this is not just about gun control, it is far greater than that. The government now must take more and more of your money to feed its insatiable appetite. Now the government wants to tell you what kind of health care you should have. The statues and laws that have been passed over the past 100 years or so have done nothing more than limit, not the reach of government, but the rights and freedom of the citizen.

I will say this, if the government is successful in strict gun control or in disarming the citizenry there will be no limit to the tyranny that we will see in the United States. The Second Amendment is the teeth of the Bill of Rights and once those teeth are removed there will be no non-governmental check against tyranny. To trust the government for our personal protection is to willing allow ourselves to come under tyranny and that is something every American should stand against.

Conclusion
As we know, our nation was founded on the ideals of freedom and liberty. Both of these principles are under fierce attack today. I have argued that we are seeing some forms of tyranny here in America but we have not yet come under complete despotism. Our duty, if we love freedom, is to stand against all forms of tyranny in our nation and the world. We can do that through writing, speaking, disobedience to unjust laws and, in the worst case, resistance. Never forget that the United States was not an experiment in good government, it is an experiment in good citizenship and limited government. To operate at maximum efficiency our land must be populated with good citizens who are first self-governed. This is the first line of defense against tyranny.

Semper Libertas,
RV