Every Man a Tyrant

Published by Jim Mogel on December 2, 2020December 2, 2020

Huey Long, Governor and later Senator from Louisiana, made his famous “Every Man a King” speech during the depths of the Great Depression in 1934.  Leveraging the difficulties of the depression, he called for a program that would put strict limits on income, wealth, and inheritance, with guaranteed minimum incomes for all families. He also proposed the classic schemes placing limits on labor and free enterprise, with the government as the wise and all knowing manager.  Long was assassinated in 1935 before any plans at a presidential run could mature.

The promise of government force to make “every man a king” is nothing unusual.  But the wildly popular Covid-19 fad has roots in the same kind of thinking, with just a little twist: “Every Man a Tyrant”.  The whole setup is perfect, where you, too, can be a tyrant right where you are.  You may not be able to rise to the level of a state Governor, but you can satisfy the same wicked, evil impulses in whatever your station in life.  You don’t even have to be one of those in positions like town councils or county commissioners to rule over your neighbor.  You could be a pastor or an elder in your church.  But it doesn’t even end there.  No matter where you stand in your employment, there is an opportunity to lord the Covid scam over your fellow workers: “if you don’t _______ (typically wear a mask), “they” can shut us down (“they” being whoever your employer is afraid of).  And at the most basic level, you can yell at anyone  in public who isn’t following some ridiculous “guideline” using the threat of making them a social outcast for not going along with the blind herd. 

It’s not hard to see how this horrible nightmare has progressed in a way so much more widespread and damaging than any virus. From the disgusting impulses to follow fads and run in herds, to the miserable tendencies to believe lies, to the wicked desires to rule over one’s neighbor, the Covid scam has brought out the worst in society.  Time will tell the depths of damage and misery brought on by this horrible debacle.

Let’s fight on and put down the evil forces at play, and look toward the promise where every man, in a very certain sense, is a king:

[Mic 4:1-5 KJV] But in the last days it shall come to pass, [that] the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make [them] afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken [it]. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

– Jim Mogel