Saturday, December 19, 2015

Absalom for President

I'm almost two-thirds of the way through A Tale of Three Kings. I came across some very, very insightful comments on those who make promises for when they are in office. Here are some quotes:

Absalom "spoke of many changes he would make in the way the kingdom is run. Although he did not seem to notice it, he had stated two irreconcilable propositions: many changes, more freedom..." (65).

"Absalom dreams. Dreams of what should be, of what will be: 'This is what I will do,' he says. But to fulfill those dreams, he must have the people's cooperation. Ah this is the point often overlooked. Such dreams rest totally on the premise that the people of God will follow the new leader, that all will see as he sees. Such men as Absalom can envision no problems in their own future kingdom..."

"What will Absalom do when people stop following him willingly? Ah now there is a question..."

"Will he still be determined to put all his dreams into being? If so, then Absalom has but one recourse: dictatorship."

2 comments:

Martin LaBar said...

Hmmm. Interesting. Would he have been better than, say, Manasseh? Which Presidential candidate is he most like, or is he like all of them -- expecting to be able to do whatever they want?

Ken Schenck said...

It seems to me that all the candidates promise the moon, and we all should know they can't deliver. I can't imagine anyone will spend millions on a wall or that we will seriously stop all Muslims from entering the country, for example. These are not feasible proposals.

Perhaps the better question is who will act like a dictator if elected?