The Little Tyrant (Shout to Clitophon)

Some tyrants are great and terrible, say Stalin, but other evil folk  may just be the running dog Pulitzer Prize winner who empowered him. 

Most of us do not have the talent to even reach this level of tyranny. We lack the talent for spinning our mind control to millions. There are smaller tyrants who are simply narcissi having a moment of power and when the grift is revealed, they disappear. Frank Baum, of Oz fame, created a race of balloon people who could be punctured and fly away in a moment. Some tyrants are just this way: third-rate talent that chanced into power. When you see the grift, they deflate more quickly than one could imagine given their earlier bloviating.

They snark on Twitter, but cannot block critics fast enough.

What is a tyrant? He is any guru. A tyrant is any spin master or pundit who has predetermined the conclusion, but still pretends to follow the process of reason. The good God insists that both the ends and the means be just. The tyrant, great or small, cares only about the end: follow the tyrant. As to the means? They cheat. They double shuffle. The small tyrant, often, will justify his tyranny, his bias, his mendacity, but pointing to the Big Tyrant. “At least, I am not him.” they say.

Against the great tyrant, the spirit of Antichrist, philosophers like Saint John and Plato level the great guns of philosophy: works like the Gospel of John and Republic. Plato saw the problem of small tyrants. In Republic, he has a character, Clitophon, speak up as the great tyrannical guru Thrasymachus opines. This Clitophon is given a short dialogue to tell his lesser lies. The lesser tyrant is the man who would control his tiny world and so he gets a tiny dialogue!

So it goes.

God help me avoid tyranny. Potentially great tyrants are warned by saints like Ambrose. This saint was willing to tell an emperor “repent.”

Against becoming  a lesser tyrant, there are saints like Saint Raphael. This good man labored with the poor, orphans, and a divided North American church. He was a scholar whose service cut him off from the communities of discourse he loved. He did not complain. The tyrants, great and small, draw attention to self. The saints, great and small, are saints because they draw attention to the good God and serve the poor. Saint Raphael, a twentieth century saint, is such a one. He was the slayer of small tyrants by being the servant of all people. While robber barons exploited workers, Saint Raphael served workers.

Rejoice, O Father Raphael, Adornment of the Holy Church! Thou art Champion of the true Faith, Seeker of the lost, Consolation of the oppressed, Father to orphans, and Friend of the poor, Peacemaker and Good Shepherd, Joy of all the Orthodox, Son of Antioch, Boast of America: Intercede with Christ God for us and for all who honor thee.

From a devotional for the Clitophon at The College program at The Saint Constantine School.