Virtue vs a Cycle of Oppression

Does it seem to anybody else that we are being ruled by a group of people who no matter how one measures their “virtue” they are weak and not very accomplished in their own right? Back in the second century BCE the Greek military hero and Roman historian Polybius, wrote about. The “Kyklos”—cycle of governance. It looks something like this:

“The cycle rotates through the three basic forms of government, democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy and the three degenerate forms of each of these governments’ ochlocracy, oligarchy, and tyranny. Originally society is in ochlocracy, but the strongest figure emerges and sets up a monarchy. The monarch’s descendants, who because of their family’s power lack virtue, become despots and the monarchy degenerates into a tyranny. Because of the excesses of the ruler the tyranny is overthrown by the leading citizens of the state who set up an aristocracy. They too quickly forget about virtue and the state becomes an oligarchy. These oligarchs are overthrown by the people who set up a democracy. Democracy soon becomes corrupt and degenerates into ochlocracy, beginning the cycle anew.

Notice that the antecedent event that proceeds the loss of power is a loss of “virtue”. In modern day political and social theory there is an almost similar explanation for the power vacuum that consumes systems of governance. It is called the “cycle of oppression”. Brazilian social scientist Paulo Freire who has been cited by politicians, community organizers and even a Pope, is the author of Pedagogy of The Oppressed. His thoughts:

He warns the oppressed against becoming oppressors on two counts: (1) whether the oppressed gain power and use this power to oppress their previous oppressor; or (2) in the case of the oppressed gaining power over other oppressed people and becoming their oppressors, as they seek their own individual liberation. Oppression recapitulates oppression. He describes the cause of the cycle to be—”ambiguous duality”. Substitute the word “virtue” if you are grounded in Natural or Biblical Law theory. Virtue as our Founding Fathers warned on several occasions is the prerequisite for a Republican Form of Governance.

But people don’t need to be oppressed to feel oppressed. An “oppressed” person living in our country may be living under better conditions and have a better hope for their future, than a non-oppressed person living in another country. Oppression many times is an excuse for an individual not to take control over the circumstances of their own lives. We just might rationalize a position of oppression by looking at our next-door neighbors or classmates or those who are competing against us in business, academics, or even in athletics. Six foot four, 4.4 forty-yard dash, 60 yard throwing arm Colin Kaepernick feels he is “oppressed” because no team wants him to play Quarterback for them in the NFL. Five Foot nine, 4.7 forty-yard dash, 50 yard throwing arm Kellen Moore can’t find a team wanting him to be their QB in the NFL either. One spends all their time on social media complaining about being oppressed and the other reinvented himself and is one of the most respected offensive coordinators in football.

Who can forget the “oppressed University of Missouri College Professor asking for “muscle” during a campus demonstration?

She is now a tenured Professor at Gonzaga University? The oppressed being oppressor.

I am tired of being led by legacy politicians who are banking on the “virtues” of their families’ past. They haven’t experienced enough setbacks to be good leaders. They have led “snowflake” lives. Their parents and grandparents fought the battles—won and lost, that developed character. Their generations never had “participation trophies”. Think of Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsome, Mitt Romney, and several of our own Idaho politicians. No matter, they validate their positions with a nod to a political process determined by money and lobbyists. They have not the intrinsic virtue to sustain themselves like their ancestors had to have just to survive a trip across the prairie, or build a steam engine, or clear 60 acres, or turn desolate land in the Raft River Valley into an agribusiness fortune.

With all due respect and from where I sit in Garden City if we as a people don’t regain our own individual intrinsic virtue, we will never be able to mount another GREAT AWAKENING.