9/19/96 Gibbs, Drummer Column, 690 words

Beast of burden

After thousands of years of civilization there is still a lot of evil in the world. We've come a long way since barbaric times, showing a marked reduction of the incidence of savagery, but we'll never been rid of it.

We all have a beast within, it seems, locked in a sturdy cage with a padlock of moral fiber. Sometimes we tame it with conscience, love and good intentions. With proper care, and a dash of guilt, can incorporate it into our whole selves and use its energy for good.

But, like a pit bull, the beast can also be trained to be vicious. It can feed on us until it has the strength and cunning to escape in the night and do dastardly deeds. Sometimes we let it out on purpose, like a good warden allowing a prisoner some yard time to exercise. Other times, we let it out to commit acts of destruction that we don't want to soil our hands with, then shuttle it back in and cover for it when the inquisitors arrive. Sometimes the beast is our avenger.

If we all have the beast within and only some of us can train it, then evil will exist alongside good for good. We've been unable to destroy it so far, so we've created laws and damnation to punish it, and codes of conduct to discourage it. For centuries the Western world and many other cultures feared eternal Hell fire as the just ending to a corrupted life. Theology maintained order through the reward and punishment of the soul as civilization evolved. The threat of a painful afterlife, however, has faded in its influence.

Today, it is human law and the fear of temporal imprisonment that keeps us in check. For a while there, theology and law were working together, and neither had to toil too hard. We got our moral training growing up and the law curbed our rash impulses. More and more, however, law is on its own to create order. Law may have to become a beast itself to succeed.

Singapore has one of the world's lowest crime rates. It also has gumless sidewalks, clean streets, graffiti-less walls, high educational standards, economic success, and a fair cost of living. Nice place. It also has strict laws and stiff penalties. Paint a car - get caned. Chew gum - go to jail. Is this a necessary trade? Is it desirable?

In Plato's Republic poets were censored and children were brought up on wholesome stories. The Republic required many strict rules of order for its utopian vision. Rulers couldn't own, and owners couldn't rule. His philosophy of virtuous harmony was totalitarianistic. Is utopia a police state?

We have had thousands of years of education, spawned hundreds of philosophers and prophets, and given the proper guidance most of us are able to be truly happy and moral people. We can govern ourselves from within. The problem is that each child brought into the world is ignorant to all we've learned. He may as well be born in the beginning. He has no books, no sense of history, no civilization, no governor. If we do a sloppy job of training him, his ignorance may guide him to folly, to a release of the beast.

Hurt people hurt and totalitarianism can stop it, but totalitarianism is a double-edged sword. As Albert Camus said, "One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves." Sometimes, nice things are said. Karl Von Humboldt believes that "man is more disposed to domination than freedom; and a structure of dominion not only gladdens the eye of the master who rears and protects it, but even its servants are uplifted by the thought that they are members of a whole, which rises high above the life and strength of single generations."

So where do I sit? I'm a registered Democrat. Am I hounding for a police state, a big beast to control all the little beasts? I'd rather see it done through education and spiritual guidance, but in the meantime? How do we achieve liberty and justice for all? Are they contradictions? I don't know.