History of Non-Resistance: Declaring Government & King All-Powerful

Both Excessive Religion & Unbridled Atheism Have Waged War Against Humans

History of Non-Resistance: Declaring Government & King All-Powerful

Having now spent four weeks investigating the history of the Right of Resistance, that is—the right to oppose unjust leaders, we now delve into the deplorable history of the intellectual support of tyranny. It is remarkable that whether these tyranny-loving writers were pseudo-religious, or atheistic, how destructive their approach was towards society.

For the most influential religious absolutists, Jean Bodin and Robert Filmer, one Catholic, one Protestant, their debased Christianity was used to argue God placed the king on the throne, and therefore any criticism of the king was an attack on God. Contra, the philosophers all tended to be atheists, who—in the name of quelling unrest, simply disbanded natural law, or any right to resist evil leaders, no matter how bloodthirsty or power mad. One only need remember the crazed reigns of Lenin, Stalin and Mao to realize the worst political theories trade God for cruel and utterly ruinous philosophies.

Carl Schmitt, in his Political Theology, writes:http://dilettantescholar.blogspot.com/2010/09/carl-schmitt-political-theology-chapter.html

All significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts, not only because of their historical development—in which they were transferred from theology to the theory of the state, whereby, for example, the omnipotent God became the omnipotent lawgiver—but also because of their systematic structure, the recognition of which is necessary for a sociological consideration of these concepts. The exception in jurisprudence is analogous to the miracle in theology.

It is simply astounding how spectacularly destructive the 20th century political religions, derived from the writers detailed below, ended up becoming. According to R.J. Rummel, of the University of Hawaii, no less than 200 million people were murdered by leftist governments—either Marxist, liberal, socialist, progressive, or Fascist, last century.
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM

Here, then, are the thinkers who believe humans never have the right to resist unjust authority, under any circumstances. God help us to learn our lessons when right religion and common sense are tossed out, replaced by a sick humanism that worships some men as gods on earth, causing millions of others to be pointlessly sacrificed.

I. French & English Theologians of Tyranny

In ancient times, there existed a perpetual danger of tyranny. In fact, in classical Rome, Julius Caesar was killed, in a “tyrannicide”, by senators opposed to his usurpation of total power. But it was not until the 17th century that modern theories supporting tyranny arose. The first were royal and religious, the second wave were secular and philosophical.

A. Jean Bodin
The first modern writer espousing the Divine Right of Kings was the brilliant, but war-weary Frenchman Jean Bodin, the most famous early modern royal absolutist. J.P. Sommerville describes him:http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/283/283%20session04.htm

One of the most famous and influential theorists of absolutism was the Frenchman Jean Bodin (1529/1530-1596). He studied law, and became a successful lawyer, judge, and advisor to members of the royal family. Bodin believed religious civil war was terrible, and all French people should put country before religious ambition. Peace was more important than religious unity. It is possible that Bodin personally came to believe in a religion that contained Islamic and especially Jewish elements, as well as Christian ones, and that he wrote a book called the Colloquium of the Seven in which he develops his eclectic and syncretist ideas.

Bodin had an enormous impact on his and subsequent generations through his famed Six Books of the Commonweal (or State) (Six livres de la république). In book République I, 8, Bodin explains that the Huguenots are wrong, and that The People can never have more authority than the Sovereign, or Prince, and Bodin also defines the Sovereign:http://www.constitution.org/bodin/bodin.txt

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bodin/

http://www.iep.utm.edu/bodin/#H3

Maiestie or Soveraigntie is the most high, absolute, and perpetuall power over the citisens and subiects in a Commonweale: which the Latins call Maiestatem, the Greeks akra exousia, kurion arche, and kurion politeuma; the Italians Segnoria, and the Hebrewes tomech shévet, that is to say, The greatest power to command.

The Prince can declare war and make peace, hear last appeals, place and remove the highest officials, impose taxes, or abate them on individuals, grant pardons, utterly control currency, and require subjects to swear loyalty to the Prince.

B. Robert Filmer

Robert Filmer is the English version of Bodin. Filmer’s work Patriarcha: A Defence of the Natural Power of Kings against the Unnatural Liberty of the People, was regarded with alarm and disgust by the pro-parliament forces. A brief biography of Filmer by J.P. Sommerville:
http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/filmer-patriarcha-or-the-natural-power-of-kings

Sir Robert Filmer (1588-1653) was a major proponent of the theory of the Divine Right of Kings, and also of the most famous patriarchalist theory in defense of absolute royal power. On many points, he closely followed Jean Bodin, by whom he was greatly influenced, stressing the duty of non-resistance to sovereigns, and the indivisibility of sovereignty.

Filmer’s entire argument comes from the Old Testament, and claims that in the same way a father is an unopposed godlike head of his family, the king is similarly a leader of his people who cannot be challenged, as seen here.http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/filmer-patriarcha-or-the-natural-power-of-kings

It may seem absurd to maintain, that Kings now are the Fathers of their People, since Experience shews the contrary. It is true, all Kings be not the Natural Parents of their Subjects, yet they all either are, or are to be reputed the next Heirs to those first Progenitors, who were at first the Natural Parents of the whole People, and in their Right succeed to the Exercise of Supreme Jurisdiction; and such Heirs are not only Lords of their own Children, but also of their Brethren, and all others that were subject to their Fathers:

The idea of a Divine Right of Kings caused such a reaction in John Locke that he dedicated his Second Treatise to answering Filmer, which changed the history of the West.

II. Philosophers of Tyranny

The history of the philosophy of tyranny reveals a sorry misuse of logic in the name of safety. The theory is mankind can never be trusted to reject any human tyranny, regardless how excessive or crazy, lest anarchy result. And yet, when anarchy is placed against the history of unrestrained secular humanism, as found in the USSR and communist China, with their 150+ millions murdered, this fear seems quaint.

Several prominent philosophers are associated with absolutist theories, including Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, and Georg Hegel. Despite whatever elements of classical liberalism or humanism these men seemed to embody in their writings, when the state was threatened, they deemed it worthy of defense to the point of brutality and death. But had these had their ideas universally rejected, there is no way the modern state with a constitution and bill of rights would have ever been established.

A. Thomas Hobbes

British Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), living in perhaps the most Christian society in history, still managed to be one of the most atheistic philosophers up till his time. A biography of Hobbes is here:
http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/nature/hobbes-bio.html

Thomas Hobbes was born in London in 1588. Educated at Oxford, he studied classics. Hobbes believed humans were basically selfish creatures who would do anything to better their position. Left to themselves, he thought, people would act on their evil impulses. According to Hobbes, people therefore should not be trusted to make decisions on their own. In addition, Hobbes felt that nations, like people, were selfishly motivated. To Hobbes, each country was in a constant battle for power and wealth. To prove his point, Hobbes wrote, “If men are naturally in a state of war, why do they always carry arms and why do they have keys to lock their doors?”

It would be impossible to note the the ironic atheism of Hobbes, given his Christian society—nor measure the horrific impact of his embracing of tyranny in the name of offering mankind safety. Hobbes wrote in Leviathan (The Whale),
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html

For the laws of nature (as justice, equity, modesty, mercy, and, in sum, doing to others as we woud be done to) of themselves, without the terror of some power, to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our natural passions, that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge and the like.

In the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

... the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

The aim of Punishment is not a revenge, but terror.

As the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy writes,http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hobbes-moral/#Abs

Although Hobbes offered some mild pragmatic grounds for preferring monarchy to other forms of government, his main concern was to argue that effective government—whatever its form—must have absolute authority. Its powers must be neither divided nor limited.

B. Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was a notorious materialistic atheist, who infamously argued that the entire substance of the universe was “God.” He was deeply influenced by Thomas Hobbes pessimistic and cynical writings. According to Edwin Curley, in the The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza, “Spinoza is the most Machiavellian of the great modern philosophers.”

Given that Spinoza was handed down arguably the harshest rebuke in the history of the Dutch Synagogue, it is therefore surprising he advocated total government control of the people. Spinoza had an enormous impact on George Hegel, who then passed on atheistic and secular absolutism to Karl Marx, helping establish the foundation which justified the murder hundreds of millions in 20th century Europe. A brief Spinoza biography is here:http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/spin.htm

Baruch Spinoza was born to Portuguese Jews living in exile in Holland. Despite an early rabbinical education, he was expelled from the synagogue at Amsterdam for defending heretical opinions in 1656. While engaging privately in serious study of medieval Jewish thought, Cartesian philosophy, and the new science, Spinoza supported himself by grinding optical lenses, an occupation that probably contributed to the consumption that killed him. Private circulation of his philosophical treatises soon earned him a significant reputation throughout Europe…

Spinoza, concerned to remove religious influence from society, in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, proposes the Separation thesis and Single Authority theory, where faith is separated from the state, and all authority rests in the Sovereign. He writes, “it is also the duty of the sovereign authority alone to lay down how a person should behave with piety towards their neighbor, that is, to determine how one is obliged to obey God.”http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1710

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza-political/#SinAutThe

But regarding the Right of Resistance? Spinoza taught that the State had a natural right to do anything within its power. Therefore, no true natural rights exist for Spinoza; ergo—only the State has any rights to act. To avoid anarchy, Spinoza hands over all human rights to the state, claims the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/#Sta

We thus agree to hand over to a sovereign our natural right and power to do whatever we can to satisfy our interests. That sovereign…will be absolute and unrestrained in the scope of its powers. It will be charged with keeping all the members of society to the agreement, mostly by playing on their fear of the consequences of breaking the “social contract”.

Georg Hegel

George Hegel (1770-1831) is one of the most influential philosophers in history, especially given how his ideas became the template to Karl Marx. His biography:
http://www.biography.com/people/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel-9333532#synopsis

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel studied philosophy and classics at Tübingen. After graduation he became a tutor and an editor and explored theology. His first published success was Phänomenologie des Geistes (The Phenomenology of Spirit) in 1807. He died of cholera in 1831.

Hegel wrote on politics in the Philosophy of Right. He believed only the state had rights, and could take any means against individuals to protect society as a whole. Hegel is a famously obtuse writer. But he believed that the universe was developing spiritually, and human history—even Christianity, was simply another phase in this circular, ever upward rise called the Dialectic of History. Within this rise, “God”—borrowed from Spinoza’s mindless pantheism—expresses himself on earth through the political process. Mankind sums up God on earth, directed by the Absolute Spirit. Therefore, the Sovereign cannot be contradicted under any circumstances. One writer sums Hegel’s strange ideas:
http://www.jsd-africa.com/Jsda/V13No3_Summer2011_A/PDF/The%20Hegelian%20State%20and%20the%20Rise%20of%20Tyranny%20of%20the%20Minority.pdf

HEGEL’S THEORY OF THE STATE

The state, for Hegel, is the final projection of the Absolute and it embodies its own unique ethical life. The state is unique and supreme to the individuals within it. The state is the unification of the human beings. For him, the state is the Divine Idea as it exists on earth. We must, therefore, worship the state as the manifestation of the divine on earth. The state is the march of God through the world. The Hegelian State swallows up the theory of rational free citizenship as the central concept in any political settings. The citizens have no life or freedom of their own, except the one the state attests to.

Conclusion

When Hegel wrote “All worth which the human being possesses—all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State,” we are to understand that religion, and in fact the spiritual nature of mankind itself is extinguished by the idea of the state. Since the most popular authors today are influenced by these leftist thinkers, especially Marx by Hegel—we must ponder carefully what this means for the future of human liberty, and take the appropriate actions in response. Or recall what Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”