Saturday
Un despote a toujours quelques bons moments ; une assemblée de despotes n’en a jamais. Si un tyran me fait une injustice, je peux le désarmer par sa maîtresse, par son confesseur, ou par son page ; mais une compagnie de graves tyrans est inaccessible à toutes les séductions.
[A despot still has good moments; an assembly of despots never does. If one tyrant mistreats me, I can get round him by means of his mistress, his priest, or his page-boy. But a staid company of tyrants is impervious to temptation.]
- Voltaire. A remarkable characterisation of the monotonic puritanism of modern democratic government, but written in around 1760. I wonder whether C.S. Lewis's better known pronouncement on those who torment us for our own good has its origin here. It is similar both in the thought expressed and the cadence of its expression.
... and that is why we should fear the U.N.
Just going from the rhythms of the two, I think you are probably right in your speculation as to whether C.S. Lewis's well-known quotation about those who torment us for our own good was partly inspired by this one. Whether they are linked or not, both are unfortunately apt.
Even more unfortunately we have in the modern tranzi bureacracy a combination of both evils, the evil of tyrants assembled reinforcing each other's worst impulses, and the evil of those who "torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Posted by Natalie Solent at December 6, 2008 08:49 AM
Great post here!
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Posted by Steve at December 6, 2008 02:49 PM
I wasn't thinking of the UN at all. I was thinking of party and cabinet government.
On the whole I think the UN is irrelevant. It is the OECD, the caucus of the most powerful states, that is really dangerous as cartelised government.
Posted by guy herbert at December 7, 2008 07:18 AM
Indeed Guy.
A King not limited by law may order terrible things - as various Kings of France (almost unlimited power in most, although not all, of France) did so order. The attack on the Templers by the Philip the Fair, or the attack on the Protestants by Louis XIV spring to mind.
But to keep up great wickedness day-by-day over a period of years one needs an "administrative structure" - whether religious or secular it has to be there.
Not a despot with a whim - a lot of pen pushers thinking they are working for the "common good" or "general welfare".
Posted by Paul Marks at December 12, 2008 09:43 PM
