Ancient government no different than the modern version

As we listen today to the media-inspired and politician-encouraged screams of how Americans’ rights have been taken away, how women are property and a hideous military (well, fascist) dictatorship has descended upon the American people? What are we to think?

The level may vary, but the cries of fear and loathing are little different from what we heard in 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and the last year or so.

Or for that matter, or virtually all of human history. For people understand that government – specifically the rulers and the power behind their thrones and their goons and shills – is evil and delights in treating humans (outside their select group) in horrible ways.

Solomon told us there is nothing new under the sun. So let us consider this, from the Sixth Century BC.

The brazen bull was a horrifying invention designed to make death itself a spectacle.

Created by Perilaus of Athens for the brutal tyrant Phalaris of Akragas (a country or city-state in ancient Sicily), this bronze torture device was hollow and shaped like a bull, with an acoustic system that transformed the victim’s screams into bull-like roars. Perilaus hoped this morbid invention would win him Phalaris’s favor, but the tyrant had other plans, ordering Perilaus to demonstrate its effects by testing it on him. In a dark twist, the creator of this nightmarish device became its first victim.

The purpose of this device was not the same as the famed idols of Moloch of ancient Canaan and later Phoenicia and Carthage: it was not for worshipping “the gods.” Rather, it was to demonstrate the power (and madness) of government. The purpose of the bull was not merely to execute but to terrify, as it could roast victims alive while their distorted screams echoed for onlookers. It served as a symbol of Phalaris’s absolute power, a demonstration of the extreme consequences awaiting anyone who dared to oppose his rule.

But again, as with Perilaus, it all backfired. Phalaris’s cruelty and use of the bull eventually led to a rebellion by his people, sickened by the tyrant’s merciless rule. When they finally overthrew him, legends suggest he met his end in the very bull he had commissioned, a fittingly ironic fate.

The device, though rarely if ever widely used, became infamous as a cautionary symbol of cruelty and oppression. No doubt other tyrannies (even those organized as “democracies” and “republics”) copied this many times.

Perilaus’s ambition, ironically, backfired. His invention, instead of bringing him power and favor, brought him death. The brazen bull became a dark emblem of the risks involved in courting the favor of a tyrant, a reminder of how quickly the pursuit of power and invention can turn fatal. Today, while no brazen bull survives, it endures in stories and cultural memory as a symbol of the terrifying lengths to which human ingenuity can go when twisted by cruelty—and how sometimes, in history’s darker tales, even the inventors of nightmares get burned. Especially when that twisted cruelty originates or is magnified by mandatory human government.

We suppose we can point out that the cruelty of Perilaus’s brazen bull has been far surpassed by many other governments, especially in the 20th and 21st Centuries: the immolation of tens of thousands in wars; the evil odor of concentration camps; the abortion mills of Philadelphia and many other places; and more. In comparison, the evils and the abuse of Americans (and those around the world) on Uncle Joe’s (and Commie Kammie’s) regime, and the actions of the FedGov during The Donald’s first regime, are pretty small potatoes. The likelihood of The Donald’s actions of the next four years being any worse than those of Uncle Joe is very low.

But governments of all types and sizes and locations will continue to torture (physically and spiritually and mentally) and kill people. Until we get rid of them.

Isn’t it time? Not to whinge and fear, but to act?

A reminder to people of faith (or not): Jesus said “Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

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Source: https://freedombunker.com/2024/11/09/ancient-government-no-different-than-the-modern-version/