CONTINUED FROM LAST POST.....
...... 172. Thirdly, despotical power is an absolute, arbitrary power one man has over another, to take away his life whenever he pleases; and this is a power which neither Nature gives, for it has made no such distinction between one man and another, nor compact can convey. For man, not having such an arbitrary power over his own life, cannot give another man such a power over it, but it is the effect only of forfeiture which the aggressor makes of his own life when he puts himself into the state of war with another. For having quitted reason, which God hath given to be the rule betwixt man and man, and the peaceable ways which that teaches, and made use of force to compass his unjust ends upon another where he has no right, he renders himself liable to be destroyed by his adversary whenever he can, as any other noxious and brutish creature that is destructive to his being....
.... 222. The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property; and the end while they choose and authorise a legislative is that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the society, to limit the power and moderate the dominion of every part and member of the society. For since it can never be supposed to be the will of the society that the legislative should have a power to destroy that which every one designs to secure by entering into society, and for which the people submitted themselves to legislators of their own making: whenever the legislators endeavour to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge which God hath provided for all men against force and violence.
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In reading his essays, it is clear that such a man, John Locke, was not a product of the influence of a philosophy such as ISLAM.
But that he was a man bounded by an intellectual exploration of 'the natural laws of reason and tolerance'.
And John Locke reasons, that those who seek to put us under their influence and power, without our consent, seek against nature, to make us [their] slaves.
And he reasons, that it is such people [oppressors] who are the cause of human conflict and war, being a conflict which is prosecuted by an oppressor, seeking to enslave the will of all others, not within, and under the oppressors' will and authority.
"......he who attempts to get another man into his absolute power does thereby put himself into a state of war with him; it being to be understood as a declaration of a design upon his life. For I have reason to conclude that he who would get me into his power without my consent would use me as he pleased when he had got me there, and destroy me too when he had a fancy to it; for nobody can desire to have me in his absolute power unless it be to compel me by force to that which is against the right of my freedom- i.e. make me a slave."
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Where justice reigns, 'tis freedom to obey.
James Montgomery
"So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men."
Voltaire (1694-1778)
The difference between a free man and a slave is that a slave values his life more than his freedom...
John Norman
The secret of Happiness is Freedom, and the secret of Freedom is Courage.
Thucydides, Pericles' Funeral Oration
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke
There is no evil in the atom - only in men's souls.
Adlai Stevenson
Mens ignorance is full of evil.
To have opinion without knowledge, is to be the devils advocate.
Yadda
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John Locke 1632-1704 (Read 850 times)
