In light of the Friday ambush staged by the current occupant of the White House and his henchman against Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, I invite you to meditate on Aquinas’ wisdom set forth up front on page ix of my recent book on Christ and antichrist. It strikes me as amazingly prescient. Aquinas’ words are in italics; I underline a few of his words and offer mine in brackets.
The disregard of the common good is greater under an oligarchy than under a democracy.
But worst of all is a tyranny where the advantage of one man is sought.
The rule of a tyrant is worst.
Security is banished and everything is uncertain when people are cut off from law and depend on the will, I would even say the greed, of another.
The tyrant oppresses the bodies of his subjects, but what is more damnable, he threatens their spiritual growth, for he is set on his own power, not their progress.
He is suspicious of any dignity that they may possess that will prejudice his own iniquitous domination.
A tyrant is more fearful of a good person [Zelenskyy?] than of a bad person [Putin?], for he dreads their strange virtue.
Fearful lest they grow strong and so stout of heart as no longer to brook his wicked despotism but resolve in companionship to enjoy the fruits of peace, a tyrant is constrained to destroy good people’s confidence in one another, lest they gather together to throw off his yoke.
Therefore, he sows discord among them, and encourages dissensions and litigation. [Trump is now suing and threatening to sue news outlets he disagrees with.]
Regarding the role of Greed and Avarice, which is such a hallmark of the new regime and its leaders, Aquinas makes the following pertinent observations:
Avarice gives rise to insensibility to compassion, because one’s heart is not softened by compassion to assist the needy with one’s riches. [Cf the disassembly of USAID for example and the current Congress’s attacks on SNAP and Medicaid and Musk’s attacks on Social Security which he calls a “ponzi scam.”]
It also gives rise to restlessness by hindering one with excessive anxiety and care, for ‘an avaricious man shall not be satisfied with money’ (Ecclesiastes 5:9).
The avaricious in acquiring other people’s good sometimes employ force, which pertains to violence.
Sometimes deceit.
And then if they have recourse to words, it is falsehood if it be mere words.
Perjury if they confirm their statement by oath. [For example, taking an oath to uphold the laws of the Constitution but doing the opposite.]
If they have recourse to deeds and the deceit affects things, we have fraud.
There is ample insight and wisdom here to meditate long and hard on what is going on in our government today. Republican Congress people and senators who are not standing up for democracy home or abroad fit this bill. And those who watched the Vance/Trump attack on President Zelenskyy with apparent satisfaction.
Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ, p. ix.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. 301, 306.
And Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 493ff.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
See Fox, “Character and Chakra Development,” in Fox, The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human, pp. 138-145.
Banner Image: The deep roots of oligarchy in U.S. government: “The Bosses of the Senate.” Cartoon by Joseph Keppler, published in Puck on 1/23/1889, reproduced on the U.S. Senate website. Corporate interests are shown as giant money bags looming over tiny senators. The “people’s entrance” is barred. Galleries stand empty while special interests operate below the motto: “This is the Senate of the Monopolists, by the Monopolists and for the Monopolists!” Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
Why do you think Aquinas talks about the “strange virtue” of good people that frightens tyrants and their enablers? I purposely present Aquinas’s teachings here in a poem-like structure because each sentence strikes me as deserving of meditation, contemplation and response to the dangers of our time. Which lines do you think are most critical to our consciousness and action today?
Recommended Reading
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in English (or Italian or German of French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way.
“The teaching of Aquinas comes through will a fullness and an insight that has never been present in English before and [with] a vital message for the world today.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths (Afterword).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human
The A.W.E. Project reminds us that awe is the appropriate response to the unfathomable wonder that is creation… A.W.E. is also the acronym for Fox’s proposed style of learning – an approach to balance the three R’s. This approach to learning, eldering, and mentoring is intelligent enough to honor the teachings of the Ancestors, to nurture Wisdom in addition to imparting knowledge, and to Educate through Fox’s 10 C’s. The 10 C’s are the core of the A.W.E. philosophy and process of education, and include: compassion, contemplation, and creativity. The A.W.E. Project does for the vast subject of “learning” what Fox’s Reinvention of Work did for vocation and Original Blessing did for theology. Included in the book is a dvd of the 10 C’s put to 10 video raps created and performed by Professor Pitt.
“An awe-based vision of educational renewal.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
7 thoughts on “Aquinas on Oligarchy, Democracy & American Politics Today”
“A tyrant is more fearful of a good person than of a bad person, for he dreads their strange virtue.”
The words of Aquinas are remarkably insightful and accurate. Donald Trump is a deeply troubled soul and he stands as a fitting metaphor for the disillusion prevalent within our world. Metaphysically, he is not helped by our hostility towards him. We need to bathe him in thoughts and prayers of profound, all-embracing Love. Personally, I do not believe him to be wicked but rather as a tortured soul seeking to be loved. Currently, he accepts it in a feigned way through flattery and idolatry but his soul knows these to be superficial, vain and false. We need to surround him with Love. All else is fuel for his insatiable fire. Ironically, the outpouring of such Love could all prove a remarkable tipping point for the world.
You are so right Paul. I have been praying for Trump, Putin, Musk, and their minions that God would touch their hearts so they could feel the love that constantly surrounds each and everyone of us.
Paul, we agree wholeheartedly. Donnie, Elon, JD, Paula and millions more are visibly, tragically manifesting lives bereft of sacred truth from their beginnings, and reflecting a world terribly deprived of its healing power.
All in light are called to share now in a Divine Parenting of unconditional love.
Each side claims to be good and the other bad and looks to claim ‘the throne’ of power. This is very apparent in politics in a two party system. A One party system would be far, far, worse and a three or more party system much better.
“Abdicate ‘the Throne’ to Its Rightful Owner”
We don’t look to retaliate, rather abdicate ‘the Throne’ to its rightful owner and ‘serve the rightful owner’. The ‘Community of Love, Truth, Compassion, Peace, Joy, Justice, Wisdom, Mercy, Unity and Inclusiveness’ are to rule over all and to this Throne Bearer we are to bow down and serve. In troubling times, no longer say I don’t know what to do, I have no control over what is being done. We are to throw our hearts into serving ‘the Throne’. All can do this every moment as it is the very foundation of our being. We, and ‘Nations’ on a larger scale, excuse ourselves from the service of ‘God’s Court, God’s Throne’ at our own peril. — BB.
Aquinas: “The tyrant oppresses the bodies of his subjects, but what is more damnable, he threatens their spiritual growth, for he is set on his own power, not their progress.”
The spiritual and democratic values of Truth, Freedom, Justice, Strength, Diverse ONENESS, Creativity/Evolution, COMPASSION… are Universal human values that have to always be defended with-in God’s Spirit that contains those same qualities/virtues because we are human and Divine!
Trump has shown throughout his election runs and administrations that he doesn’t understand good people. He constantly projects how he sees the world onto others. It’s so sad that he can’t understand why a person would be good or why they would care about others. It’s an alien landscape to him, so the only way he can interpret compassionate behavior is to believe that they must be faking it for their own gain. He’s called people who pay their taxes “suckers” and he’s said the same thing about soldiers. How sad to live in that belief system. The way I get past ill feelings is to recognize that he is a very injured and therefore very sad person.
Thank-you, Matthew, for continuing to tell the unvarnished truth, for applying the wisdom of Aquinas to these times. I love you!Trump’s behaviour shows that he sees and feels prayers for him by others as a useful tool to cement his power, & as reinforcement of his megalomaniac opinion of himself, same is true of Musk.Putin, like Hitler, may have transgressed so far against his soul,against others, &all creation, there is nothing left of his soul, as CSLewis observe. Of course we still pray for them, but we protect the victims first.Trump&Vance shamefully bullied an astonishingly brave and good man. As Sir Francis Bacon said, “The man who hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others. Bullying should never be rewarded. I am reminded of how when women&kids in churches report sexual abuse, they’re instantly pressured to forgive the predator who is quickly welcomed back in grace), are accused of being at least partially to blame for the abuse, (like Zelensky is being blamed now),& told to be good. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu insisted, there is no reconciliation without truth. There is not one single ounce of truth around Trump, Vance, Putin, & all their supporters, not one single ounce of compassion.Being naive about evil will not help, as Winston Churchill proved beyond doubt.The suffering that will be caused by Trump’s backing of Putin & their removal of help to Ukraine, is boundless, let us pray for all who resist it.