But not just anybody can be a ruler. All authority on Earth is given by God, and is conditional upon the recipient's fidelity to God and God's law. Should a ruler betray God and God's law, he ceases to possess God's Authority to rule other men.
This is the Western, Christian tradition of political authority. When we as a society rejected this tradition during the "Enlightenment", we destroyed the basis of just government in the West. Where before our motto was "God makes Right", we now hold that "Might makes Right". In the place of God, we made "the people" the source of all political authority. In practice, this means that those who can best manipulate the will of the people have the reins of power. Under such a system, anything goes.
Thus the rivers of blood shed over the past five hundred years in the name of freedom, democracy, and liberty. Thus the chaos we see today in every area of life. Until we reject the false goddess of Liberty and return to a society based upon God, nothing will get better.
As far as the police go, the problem is not policing per se. The State's first duty is to keep order, which is what the police are supposed to do. (That's right: stopping crime and catching criminals are not the proper function of police.) Professionally-trained police, selected carefully, responsible for their actions and limited to their proper sphere, can be a force for good.
Here in the United States, however, the police are neither professionally-trained, carefully-selected, nor responsible for their actions. Instead, it's Amateur Hour out there — police departments filled with gun-toting psychotics with a thin veneer of training, with carte blanche license to beat, shake down, torture, and kill anyone who gets in their way or offends their fragile pride. We have created what amounts to uniformed street gangs, capable of anything and licensed to kill — a classic example of Might makes Right.
As for cop-worship, it's all tied in with our culture. In a Puritan society, cultural pressure forces people to repress the evil in their sexual natures. Instead of facing up to and conquering his or her evil desires — the act of an adult — the Puritan languishes in adolescent fantasy, denying his evil impulses exist. This creates tremendous emotional and psychological pressure.
I think that cop-worship (and Nazi-worship, etc.) are the visible manifestation of the repressed homosexuality present in the human nature of the American male. Unable to admit his forbidden fascination with the idea of being sexually dominated by a powerful male, the badge-lapper finds vicarious relief in seeing powerful males of the police dominating weaker persons. Why do you think cops and badge-lappers call criminals "punks" so often? It's an adolescent homosexual dominance-and-submission syndrome straight out of the prison yard.
My Rx: get rid of "the police" as currently construed. On the local level, devolve law enforcement to the level of a single elected official (the country sheriff), backed by a corps of armed, volunteer neighborhood watch groups. Create a small paramilitary force of gendarmes trained in military discipline concerning the use of force and restraint of force. These professional police are for the maintenance of public order and for unusual situations only. At all levels, make those who carry arms on behalf of the law subject to the UCMJ.
By doing these things, we take the power of life and death away from a privileged class of thugs and place it into the hands of a professional group under military discipline and limited to its proper sphere of action. We also eliminate badge-humping. Under such a system, being a cop is no longer sexy and macho; it's something more like being a postal worker or an agriculture inspector.
Lot to digest here!
“Until we reject the false goddess of Liberty and return to a society based upon God”.
I think Liberty, in the form of a recognition of Natural Law as the ultimate arbiter of what “is”, works well. So I don’t know that Liberty culture is the problem. I am a big big fan of natural law, as opposed to case law. But I am a little out of my depth in this discussion! I just don’t have the time to really digest some complicated arguments your making. But I think we have some common ground here. I’m thinking that some of your philosophy is classic Catholic Church philosophy which you go into some very interesting historical debates that dominated the Napoleonic wars. “Attempts to establish a social order based upon equality or consensus are doomed to fail, for they go against human nature and the natural order.” I believe that humans are accorded the right to go as far as talents, means, intelligence can take them. I also agree that we are not all equal. Some are smarter, some are faster. Some have skills that were in great demand a hundred years ago but don’t garner much today (mechanical skills).
Your advocating elected sheriffs I like. It does not seem that the city counsel, mayor thing really provides much oversight to the Police.
But great post, I just need to think through some of this stuff when I have time.
In the end, republics become democracies and end up tyrannies. We are much closer to that than anyone wants to thing about.