Tyrannized or Tyrannizer?
I once sat in a classroom at seminary with a fellow student who had acquired her Juris Doctor and then come back to pursue a theological education. She told us that she had sat in a classroom where the law professor had encouraged his students to become judicial activists. According to her he said that you only have one of two options; you can be tyrannized, or you can become the tyrannizer.
It has been a decade since I heard her relate that story but I thought of it this morning when I read John Stuart Mill's essay on Political Economy and Practical Reform. Consider this excerpt:
A democratic constitution, not supported by democratic institutions in detail, but confined to the central government, not only is not political freedom, but often creates a spirit precisely the reverse, carrying down to the lowest grade in society the desire and ambition for political domination. In some countries the desire of the people is for not being tyrannized over, but in others it is merely for an equal chance to everybody of tyrannizing.
In some countries?
0 comments:
Post a Comment