John Locke Warned Us of the Corruption that Power Brings & Now We are Seeing It
Posted By Sid Wolf on Dec 27, 2013 in Articles, Corruption, History, Politics, Tyranny | 4 Comments
John_Locke_by_Sir_Godfrey_Kneller,_Bt
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I recently finished reading the Two Treatises of Government by John Locke, in which he believed that government derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed.” His views on the corruption that power brings to our most cherished institution – our form of government – our Republic – follows.
Locke writes:
“The temptation is too great for those who seek power. For those who have the power of making laws, also have the power to execute them. In most cases these same individuals exempt themselves from obeying the very laws they make. In legislation passed by those in power also find ways to exempt their own property from the laws they are charged with enforcing on the rest of society.”
He further writes, “Despotic power is an absolute, arbitrary power one man has over another, to take away his life, whenever he pleases. Usurpation is the exercise of power; so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to. When the President or the legislature makes not the law, but their will, the rule; and their commands and actions are not directed to the preservation of the properties of the people or made use of; to impoverish, harass, or subdue them to the arbitrary and irregular commands of those that have it; it becomes tyranny.”
Lock goes on to write, “the Constitution of the legislative is the first and fundamental act of society. When those in power hinder the legislative from assembling in its due time, or from acting freely, pursuant to those ends for which it was constituted, the legislative is altered. It is not a certain number of men, nor their meeting, unless they have also freedom of debating, and leisure of perfecting, what is for the good of the society.”
“When these are taken away or altered, so as to deprive the society of the due exercise of their power, the legislative is truly altered,” writes Lock. “It is not names that constitute governments, but the use and exercise of those powers that were intended to accompany them; so that he, who takes away the freedom, or hinders the acting of the legislative in its due seasons, in effect takes away the legislative, and puts an end to the government.”
“For that being in effect the legislative, whose rules and laws are put in execution, and required to be obeyed; when other laws are set up, and other rules pretended, and enforced, than what the legislative, constituted by the society, have enacted, it is plain that the legislative is changed.”
“When either the legislative is changed, or the legislators act contrary to the end for which they were constituted, those who are guilty are guilty of rebellion; for if any one by force takes away the established legislative of any society, and the laws by them made pursuant to their trust, he thereby takes away the umpirage, which everyone had consented to, for a peaceable decision of all their controversies, and a bar to the state of war amongst them.”
Is any of this ringing any bells? If not, then folks need to wake up and do the research on everything and everyone. Greed, control and power transcends and permeates our entire government.
John Marshall once said: “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.”
We are reaching a point of no return if something isn’t done and soon. Numerous questions arose when Obama said, “we are the ones we have been waiting for” and “we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” You might have to ask yourself who are these individuals “we” have all been waiting for? Furthermore, what does “fundamentally transforming the United States” actually mean? What will be “transformed”? Where, when and how will all this “transforming” occur and what will the effect of this “transformation” have on our county and the people? Just a few questions, maybe others can come up with more.
Remember it is not that “history repeats itself,” it is “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Read more at
http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/12/john-locke-warned-us-corruption-power-brings-now-seeing/#Pbse1YEPgYGMBKXh.99