I'm Buried in Research...

…. And that’s what I love about summer most. Because all the regular school subjects are done, you have the freedom to study what you love, and what you choose. (Okay, so maybe I don’t love math, but oh well.) I’m buried in the Constitution. It’s wonderful!
Today, in my wonderful studies, I was looking at three types of government:
• Republics: Where elected bodies have all of the supreme power.
• Monarchy: Where a single person governs by fixed laws.
• Despotic: When a single person governs by his own will, and by it alone.
Besides this, I was looking at the principles of each type of government, the necessary education for each type of government’s people, and how each type of government is corrupted. Here is what I came up with~

 Monarchy:
Principle of Government: Honor. The Monarch must create incentive for people to want to be obedient to him. Because not all people’s highest desire to be obedient to the government’s each and every wish (people like myself), the monarchy awards those who conform with higher positions of honor. Honest? No. Actually honorable? Not.
Necessary Education: How to excel over other citizens. “Be more noble!” “Be of higher morals!” “Be more polite!” Why? Because of the HONOR!

On a side note, when I was in Shakespeare’s King Lear as of last year, there was one character that stood out to me in this form of government: Edmund, the evil, bastard son of Gloucester. Because he was not an actual honorable person because of his father’s bad choices, he decided to act polite, to act like he had higher morals, and to act more noble, even though on the inside he was bad. In return for this display of honor, he was put in an even higher, more powerful position. (Just a mental comparison.)

How “Monarchy” is Corrupted: Dis-honor is rewarded in the name of honor, (If you’re confused with this seemingly-contradictory statement, see my above example of Edmund, and then continue reading.) and good men are degraded. Now I’m thinking of the good character Kent, in King Lear who was banished for speaking up for what he believed in. He was dishonored because he knew how to think, not what King Lear wanted him to think. (Another mental comparison.) When honor to the prince of the country becomes the object of honor instead of the country through the prince, the country becomes especially corrupt. Simple as that.


 Despotic:
Principle of Government: Fear. The Despot (or tyrant) must maintain his power, and in order to do so, must keep his people in constant fear. Reminder of Joel Rosenberg’s book The Last Jihad, where someone with a life in front of him was shot and killed for only a warning to others to not make a mistake that was not even based on the life of the killed one’s.

Necessary Education: Education? Forget the education! “Debase the human mind and make it servile!” Elimination of education is the goal here. The Despot wants to make the people only know what to think, not how to think. Sound familiar?
How the Despot is Corrupted: The Despot is corrupted from inception, and is always undone by its own corruption.


 Republic:
Principle of Government: It’s simply virtue. The law will only be enforced to the extent the people are virtuous.

Necessary Education: Promote Virtue. Education in the Republic sector of the government is most important because virtue is a self-renunciation, which takes constant education on the topic to instill. Let’s say your speeding down the road, and you’re pulled over by a police-man. You could be fined… or you could just slip him a twenty dollar-bill, and be put back on the road. It takes virtue to think about the public’s safety and benefit, not your own personal gain. Are our students being taught to love America or material possessions? I don’t know if we ever realized it, but it came to me today, education is the thing that most tyrants or dictators take away first.

How Republic is Corrupted: From either too little equality (aristocratic/monarchial rule, leading to monarchy), or too much (when people want to make every decision themselves). When corrupt rulers appeal to the corrupt poor, and the all corrupt together. When the officials are corrupted, and when power is hereditary, we are on the verge of slipping into one or the other of the above governments.

Rank is incentive enough to promote honor in a monarchy. Fear arises naturally in despotism. And virtue is hardly ever taught any longer. So, tell me, where are we today in America?