Friday, September 17, 2010

Blog #3- Antigone

The quote from Lord Acton, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." is fairly straightforward in its meaning. If one person, one entity, has complete and sole power over a group or organization or people, trouble is the only result that can come of it. It is basically impossible for one, all-powerful entity to know exactly what to do when a problem arises. There has to be cooperation and collaboration between the leader and those being led. This way the leader has direct information as to what the best solution would be to any issues that the people have since they would help with figuring it out. Creon has issues with this because instead of listening to what others think, he is caught up in his anger and revenge and only after it is too late does he realize that everybody except him was right.

A good example of cooperation amongst a ruling body and its people is a democracy. In a democracy, the laws and government in general are based off of the people's needs. The people decide what is best and once those laws are created, those laws then govern the people. The very definition of democracy means power from the people. This philosophy has obviously proven very effective since our own United States is based off of it. If Creon had listened to his advisors sooner rather than later, he might have been able to save Antigone before she took her own life. Instead, his pride and anger delayed this and all was lost. Similarly, governments where one dicatator tries to control the people results in pushback and negative responses from the people.

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