If You Have Done Nothing Wrong, Have You Anything to Fear?

Dmitry Chernikov
Jul. 25, 2006

Saints are the freest of all human beings. Now three things are necessary in order for a goal to be accomplished: (1) a person ought to want to accomplish it; (2) he must know how to do so; and (3) he must be strong enough to overcome the obstacles standing on the way to his goal. Saints have an unyielding desire for their own happiness, they are wise enough to know the myriad of laws by following which happiness is achieved, and they are powerful beings who will move mountains, as it were, to get what they want. (Conversely, sins may be due to malice, ignorance, or weakness.) Therefore, saints, having pure desires and, with their wisdom and strength, have no fear of divine punishment or what is known as "servile" fear. To be more precise, the greater one’s charity and virtues are, the less servile fear one will feel, though it never goes away completely until a person is confirmed in goodness in heaven. This is so for two reasons. First, because charity produces ecstasy, which is a kind of standing outside oneself, a self-forgetfulness in which there are no more battles to fight but everything "just works." (This self-annihilation, paradoxically, results in a kind of an explosion of self, such that you are in everybody and everybody is in you; all boundaries are dissolved by love, yet one’s personality is not only not erased but is actually sharpened.) Second, virtues are good habits, such that love and good deeds are in a virtuous person almost automatic and are enjoyed, which is why a saint is more confident of his heavenly reward and less fearful of punishment.

(The other type of fear, called "filial fear," is the fear of losing God, His favor, and happiness, as a child might fear offending his father, and it actually increases with charity. The former is thus associated with the pain of sense, the latter with the pain of loss.)

Because saints are without servile fear, they are free. They can do whatever they want and know that they will not be punished; nay, rewarded. In short, then, saints have a lot of fun. "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (Prov 16:3)

Well, before this turns into a theology column, let us see what happens when God is replaced by the state.

First, let’s switch our attention from divine laws onto human laws. Human laws are imperfect. Sometimes they permit what they ought to prohibit and prohibit what they ought to permit. Therefore a moral action (in this case, one that should not be punished by infliction of violence) may turn out to be illegal and, conversely, a lawful action, immoral. It follows that even if you have done nothing wrong or even, in fact, done something praiseworthy, the state may punish you for it. The greater the disconnect between good laws and actual laws, the more virtuous men have to fear from the authorities, and the less the evildoers do.

Second, let’s consider enforcement. God is no respecter of persons. Prince or pauper, all will be judged by the same law. Hayek, following Aristotle, calls this system "isonomy," which he defines as "equality of law to all manner of persons" or, simply, the "rule of law." The rule of law is not a panacea, for the laws can be bad, as stated above. But because human law enforcement, unlike God’s, contains a degree of arbitrariness, isonomy is a means to minimizing this solecism. There is no need here to show the extent to which the rule of law is practiced in different countries. It is clear that even in the United States there are many defects in the system. Hence even when one has broken no law, nevertheless, one may fear persecution from an arbitrary will of someone in charge of the apparatus of state. The more numerous the regulations and the vaguer they are, the more discretion is given to the enforcers. This is especially dangerous to enemies of the state who fight the power, as it were, with truth, by evading with deft maneuvering the state’s manipulative decrees, by resisting openly by force, or by articulating correct visions of a good society. There is nothing the state hates more than these. And the state will target all competing power centers.

Third, and I hope you have discerned the pattern by now: I am going through the three branches of government, God’s judgment is adorned with perfect wisdom. He knows exactly how many "points" of merit a person has accumulated and therefore his place of honor in the heavenly hierarchy. But human justice is less pleasant. Judges and juries do not know our secret thoughts and concealed deeds. They can be deceived. They can be stupid. Even an accusation is enough to isolate a person from his community and from his friends. Defending oneself in court can be expensive to the extent of plunging a person into debt. Same conclusion follows again: one may be blameless, yet have his life ruined by an indictment, a trial, an incorrect verdict, or an unjustified sentence. (This can, of course, run the other way: a criminal can get away with his crime, as well.)

It should be clear then that the common admonition that we have nothing to fear from the state if we have done nothing wrong is false even on the face of it. The state is not God; when will we understand that? In the 20th century in many societies good men and women learned to fear the state, while the worst rose to the top. What we must do therefore is make it on earth as it is in heaven by restraining and scaling down the state and by breaking down its monopoly without any reverence for it, lest it turns evil, as it has so many times in human history, and as it has now in a variety of ways.
________
Dmitry Chernikov is a graduate student in philosophy at Kent State University.












All original InformationLiberation articles CC 4.0



About - Privacy Policy