Knocking on Hell's Door

statue of Prometheus from marblecreations82 on etsy.com

By Valerie Maez

Folks need to understand that some use power wrong and some use power to advance civilization. The story of Prometheus is over 2000 years old and here in America we still see those that abuse power.

Pandora’s Box is a story rooted in Greek mythology. Pandora was the first woman created by

Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire. Prometheus, after giving the gift of fire to man, from

Olympus, then bound up all the evils of the world into a box, to further aid man. The Greek

gods bestowed upon Pandora the box who they expected would open it, thereby frustrating

the intent of Prometheus to help mankind. It was Zeus who gave Pandora to Epimethius, brother of Prometheus. It was also Zeus who chained Prometheus to a rock so an eagle could peck at this liver for further revenge. Even though Atlas was Prometheus’ other brother, it was Hercules who eventually released Prometheus from his torture, but you get the picture.

There are two ways to look at the lesson offered in this story. One is that no good deed goes

unpunished by challenging the status quo. The Greek gods wanted absolute power over man

and Prometheus challenged that concept and was severely punished for it. The second is that

despite betrayal, which brings suffering; good overcomes evil through determination,

resiliency, and faith. Greece was the cradle for the birth of the classic arts, including

representative government. Foundational documents to any system of self government by its

citizens all need to reflect tenets of noble intentions, otherwise they would have lack

credibility with the citizens.

The ancient Greeks and Romans are credited with recognizing the need to establish a

system of principles for government. Our founding fathers utilized and refined that system

when crafting the U.S. Constitution and our Bill of Rights. Three branches of government with

a division of power and a method for defining what rights government had and didn’t have.

The saying that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely is drawn from

19 th century British historian, Lord Acton. Today our world is witnessing corruption on a

massive scale. The combination of Tech and Government through public/private partnership

is destroying representative government and is increasingly acting god like.

There have been numerous studies undertaken to discern why and how power corrupts

individuals. A study by Katherine A. DeCelles, a professor of management at the University of

Toronto, established a link that when people who hold a high sense of moral identity held

power, and had that power tested under a lab experiment, they were less likely to put self

interest ahead of the common good. Her study showed assertive people with low moral

identity scores were more likely to cheat than passive types with high moral identity scores.

That is significant. Her study concluded that it wasn’t power per Se that corrupts, it was tied

more to the personality traits of individuals. The implications for a society with a growing

preponderance toward moral ambiguity in its leadership does not bode well for the common

good of our nation. We are literally knocking on Hell’s door if there is no definitive right versus

wrong in the Nation’s collective consciousness that is applied without consideration to political designations. With chaos and cynicism becoming a new normal, this is an essential factor that needs to be applied locally, as realistically speaking, we can’t control the world. While political organizations with deep pockets wage deceptive campaigns to convince voters, “it’s not us, it’s them”, we need to find those local folks who will truly represent us. We, as a country, will fall, if we, as citizens, do not assert equal justice to those who fail to hold high ethics and morals to their decisions. Recently in the news, there are Democrats demanding that a recently elected Republican Congressman resign due to lying about his resume. One such voice is that of a Democrat Congressman who admits to an affair with a Chinese spy.

You just can’t make this stuff up. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. In Arizona, a

recount is now overturning elections that Republicans supposedly won by not a small margin,

but thousands of votes. Really? What happened to the gold standard that Secretary of States

emphasize that is our election system?

Corruption surrounds us, yet Atlas is still shrugging.

Organizational meetings for major political parties will be coming in February, and it is critical

that local citizens become informed and engaged as to the mechanics and the implications of

these meetings. The Montezuma County Republican Central Committee will be electing

executive officers. Given the mess some of the voting members have created, it should

concern every registered Republican enough to attend and see what transpires. The meeting

is open to the public and any registered Republican can self nominate from the floor.