Human Rule Weighed in the Balances

Part 1a​—Turning a Spotlight on Government

DRAMATIC political changes in Europe during 1989 turned the world spotlight on the subject of government in a unique way. A newsmagazine noted that “1989 will be remembered not as the year that Eastern Europe changed but as the year that Eastern Europe as we have known it for four decades ended.”

Going even further, Francis Fukuyama of the U.S. State Department’s policy-planning staff recently wrote that “what we may be witnessing is not just the end of the cold war, or the passing of a particular period of postwar history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution.”

This view, while highly controversial, nevertheless focuses our attention on some very important questions. For example, what can be said for the centuries of human rule that lie behind us? Has mankind reached that point in time where he can speak about “the end of history as such”? Just what does the future hold for governments? And what effect will these future events have upon us as individuals?

How People Feel About Government

Millions of people are clearly disillusioned with their political leaders. This is true not just of those living in Europe but, to varying degrees, of citizens everywhere. Let us look, for example, at the countries of Latin America.

A noted German trade journal described the political situation there at the end of 1988 as “little more than a heap of ruins.” Going into specifics, it said: “Argentina’s . . . economy is coming apart at the seams. Brazil threatens to become ungovernable. Peru is at the end of its tether. Uruguay is muddling through. Ecuador is trying to size up what is undeniably an emergency situation. Colombia and Venezuela . . . are maintaining a fragile democratic tradition. In Mexico the stability of a ruling party that has governed unchallenged for 50 years . . . is disintegrating for all to see. The 1980s are already being dismissed as a ‘lost decade.’”

In some places the popularity of politicians has dropped to an all-time low. When the people of Austria were asked to rank 21 occupations in order of prestige, they listed politicians in 19th place. Public opinion polls in the Federal Republic of Germany reveal that 62 percent of its citizens who were questioned admit to having little confidence in politicians.

Professor Reinhold Bergler, director of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Bonn, warns that “young people are on the verge of turning their backs on the state, politics and politicians.” He says that 46 percent of these young people view politicians as persons who “shout their mouths off,” and 44 percent view them as being corruptible.

An American polltaker, writing in the 1970’s, noted: “There is a belief that the (political) process is so unresponsive and dishonest that it cannot be used by voters for their purposes.” Thus, the number of persons in the United States who feel that politicians “don’t really care what happens to you” has steadily risen from 29 percent in 1966 to 58 percent in the 1980’s. The German newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten justifies such an evaluation, saying: “Too many politicians have first their own interests in mind and then, just possibly, those of their voters.”

Understandably, political apathy is growing. In 1980 only 53 percent of U.S. citizens eligible to vote went to the polls. This was reportedly the fifth voting decline in a row. By 1988 the number of voters had dropped to only 50 percent.

Politicians recognize the problem. A well-known world leader confessed: “There’s a lot of hypocrisy . . . in political life.” Explaining why, he said: “It’s necessary in order to get into office and in order to retain office.” The speaker? Former U.S. president Richard Nixon. In view of the scandals that shortened his presidency, few persons will doubt that he knew what he was talking about.

Political inadequacies make honest people wonder whether good government is even possible. Might we not be better off without any government at all? Could ‘no government’ perhaps be the answer?

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“When there is no skillful direction, the people fall.”​—Proverbs 11:14

Human Rule Weighed in the Balances

Part 1b​—Do We Really Need Government?

ANARCHY: the absence of any form of political authority, resulting in a society of individuals without government, who claim total freedom for themselves.

GREEK philosopher Aristotle called all forms of human government inherently unstable and transitional. He claimed, according to one writer, that “the stability of all regimes is corrupted by the corrosive power of time.”

In view of such conditions, it is not surprising that some people have advocated having no government at all, or at least as little government as possible. But advocating ‘no government’ is in reality calling for anarchy, a term taken from a Greek word meaning “having no ruler.”

The word “anarchy” was used in 1840, exactly 150 years ago, by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, a French political writer. But the philosophy of anarchism was clearly outlined 200 years earlier by Englishman Gerrard Winstanley. As explained in The New Encyclopædia Britannica, “Winstanley laid down what later became basic principles among the anarchists: that power corrupts; that property is incompatible with freedom; that authority and property are between them the begetters of crime; and that only in a society without rulers, where work and its products are shared, can men be free and happy, acting not according to laws imposed from above but according to their consciences.”

But does not experience teach us that every group needs a framework within which to operate? “From earliest times,” notes The World Book Encyclopedia, “some kind of government has been a vital part of every society.” It explains that “every group of people​—from a family to a nation—​has rules of conduct to govern the lives of its members.” How else could it accomplish its purposes for the benefit of all its members?

Most people will therefore readily accept the notion that certain institutions have a legitimate right to exercise authority and to make decisions for the common good. With no government to make decisions for the community, every individual would be left to follow the dictates of his own conscience, as Winstanley suggested. Would this promote unity? Or is it not more likely that each individual would tend to pursue his own interests, often to the detriment of the equally legitimate rights of others?

Experiments in anarchy have failed to improve the lot of mankind. Efforts of 20th-century terrorists to destabilize society, to destroy what they perceive to be destroying them, have fared no better.

Simply stated, having ‘no government’ invites chaos. The question is therefore not ‘government or no government?’ but, rather, ‘what kind of government for the best results?’

The Origin of Human Rule

God-rule was the original pattern set for man in the garden of Eden over six thousand years ago. The Creator stressed mankind’s dependency upon him and upon his direction of things in harmony with a principle later expressed in the Bible: “It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” (Jeremiah 10:23) Or as a Chinese proverb asserts: “Without the assistance of Heaven man cannot walk an inch.”

The first human pair concluded otherwise. They chose to walk “without the assistance of Heaven” and were subsequently forced to walk their way out of the Paradise that God had given them. Later, as the human family grew, the need for rules of government to ensure peace and order within this arrangement also grew. Once God-rule had been rejected, human rule, of a necessity, moved in to fill the vacuum.​—Genesis 3:1-5.

All Alike​—Yet Different

From this inauspicious beginning, human governments have taken many forms. Whether they are very simple or extremely complex, all of them have certain similarities. Here are a few:

Governments care for the needs of their subjects. A government that fails to do this loses its legitimacy.

Governments set out a code of conduct, which if not adhered to by their subjects, results in punishment. This code is composed of rules and laws, as well as of traditions developed over the centuries. Citizens for the most part obey the code of conduct either because they discern the benefits derived from doing so, because they feel ‘it is the thing to do,’ because they are subjected to peer pressure, or simply because they will be punished if they do not.

Governments perform legislative, executive, and judicial services by means of some type of organizational setup. Laws are made, justice is administered, and policies are implemented.

Governments maintain strong economic ties to the world of commerce.

Governments also often ally themselves with some form of religion, some more closely than others. They do this to grant their rule a certain legitimacy​—‘the blessing of heaven’—​that it otherwise would not have.

Of course, governments also differ. Political scientists classify and categorize them in a number of ways. “There is, for example,” writes The New Encyclopædia Britannica, “the classical distinction between governments in terms of the number of rulers​—government by one man (monarchy or tyranny), government by the few (aristocracy or oligarchy), and government by the many (democracy).”

Sometimes governments are classified in terms of their key institutions (parliamentarism, cabinet government), according to their basic principles of political authority (traditional, charismatic), according to their economic structure, or in terms of their use or abuse of power. “Although none is comprehensive,” notes this reference work, “each of these principles of analysis has some validity.”

But regardless of how we classify them, the vital thing to remember is that the various forms of human rule​—without exception—​are now being weighed in the balances. This will have far-reaching consequences for all of us.

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Writing of the governmental authorities that rule down to this present time, the apostle Paul wrote: “Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities.” (Romans 13:1, 7) Thus, Christians who follow the Bible’s guidance conscientiously obey all laws of the land in which they live, unless called upon to break God’s laws, which are supreme.

[Picture on page 7]

Government is necessary​—even as is traffic control—​to prevent chaos

Human Rule Weighed in the Balances

Part 1c​—Human Rule Weighed in the Balances—​Why?

“Awake!” is pleased to announce a series of articles on “Human Rule Weighed in the Balances”

NO ONE can deny the influence that governments​—to confine our discussion to politics—​have had on world history and upon each of us individually. The language you speak, the standard of living you pursue, the type of work you do, the social system you enjoy, possibly even the religion you profess, have been at least partially dictated to you by the whims of political change.

Since government is necessary, who of us does not desire to live under a form of government that will satisfy our needs in the best possible way? But what kind of government is the best? And do we even have any choice in the matter of rulership?

Awake! is pleased to announce a series of articles on “Human Rule Weighed in the Balances.” These will continue in future issues of this magazine. During the remainder of 1990, it will deal with the historical background of monarchies, aristocracies, oligarchies, and plutocracies. It will delve into the broad spectrum of democracies, along with the many different kinds of republics. It will put the spotlight on autocracies, dictatorships, and totalitarian governments such as Fascism and Nazism of World War II vintage. Socialism and Communism will also be considered.

The intricacies of human rule are many and complex, so not all there is to know about government can be presented. The articles are not designed to be a comprehensive handbook on politics. They will not endorse or promote the interests of human governments in general or any one form in particular. Any comparisons between various forms will not be for the purpose of advocating one above the other. Awake! will closely adhere to its guidelines set out on page 5, where we read: “It probes beneath the surface and points to the real meaning behind current events, yet it always stays politically neutral.”

The articles “Human Rule Weighed in the Balances” are designed to be part of that process of probing “beneath the surface.” They will point to “the real meaning behind current events,” events that indicate that human rule is facing a crisis.

The book The Columbia History of the World describes the crisis this way: “The state in which we find government, religion, morality, social intercourse, language, the arts, and that ultimate basis of civilized life, public hope, permits us to form at least a tentative conclusion about the magnitude of the present epoch. Government is first in the list and first in importance. . . . [There] is contempt for law, for the State that enforces it, and for the governors that still believe in both. . . . The present outlook contrasts sharply with that of a century ago . . . In many parts of the world forces are ready at a word to storm city hall, break up a public hearing, ravage a university, or detonate an embassy. . . . The rage for absolute freedom is virulent. . . . In short, the one political and social ideal, the one motive power of the time is Separatism, no matter what other rags of older philosophy it masquerades under. If this is not yet Breakdown, it is undeniably Breakup.”

Will “Breakup” soon lead to “Breakdown,” and if so, with what consequences for the world in which we live? Of a truth, human rule is on judgment but not just by humans who have been weighing their governments for thousands of years and repeatedly finding them wanting. This time the Creator of the universe himself is calling for a reckoning. Does the record of human rule over the centuries justify its being permitted to continue? Or will its being weighed on divine judgment scales show it must go? And if so, with what can it be replaced?

The series of articles “Human Rule Weighed in the Balances” will enhance your knowledge of government. And it will fill you with hope because you have every reason to be optimistic. Better government is on the way. And best of all, you can live to enjoy it!

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When the record of human rule is weighed in the balances of divine justice, will God’s judgment be favorable?

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WHO photo/​PAHO by J. Vizcarra