Many people (at least where I’m from) have a strong belief in humanity’s bad side. I share this belief, but I think our response to it is more important.
I doubt I know a single person who believes that the government is good. ‘Power corrupts’ is almost universally accepted. Yet, very few have any hope to save it. Evil is accepted. Only the anarchists have faith in defeating this evil. They accept the cynicism to power, and meet it with a hope of a better world.
Likewise, practically everyone agrees humans have evil in them. Call it what you will, mistakes, a bad side, foolishness, selfishness; we know it’s there and bad. Most accept it, and live on, believing it cannot be changed. Christians have faith in the defeat of this evil. Christians accept the cynics belief in humanity’s evil, and meet it with the hope of God’s complete redemption.
Having, then, such hope, we use much freedom of speech,
2Corinthians 3:12
Hope is a crucial part, to being free in the conditions of bondage. Our enemies surround us, but we fight on, because we have hope in better things to come.
The strange thing is, we can easily show people that they are in bondage, but most do not want to be free. Their bodies have moulded themselves into their chains, and to be without them is uncomfortable or even painful. How do you persuade a person to desire freedom (from human oppression and slavery to sin)?
I say, we must live out freedom as much as we can. If it is as desirable as we say it is, they will see it in us, and pursue it relentlessly.
God bless you.
As A Little Child 
You have interesting things to say, Joe. I don’t think the government is either inherently bad or good myself. Systems and structures vary in their ability to provide effective solutions for problems. As a corporate entity, an association of persons, a government undertakes actions, and those actions may be estimated by various means as good or bad on a case by case basis.
Of course part of the problem in relying on cliches for guidance is the lack of a full context. Sort of like cherry-picking a scripture quote without reading the whole book. If you just say “power corrupts” and don’t explain it in detail, then (by that yardstick) God must be the most corrupt of all. I know you didn’t mean it to come out that way.
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Thanks for the comment.
I see government as inherently bad because it’s inherently violent, and I believe violence is inherently bad (especially when organised).
I totally agree that ‘power corrupts’ is incomplete. I think it may actually be corrupting because it is taking God’s place in some area. I heard somewhere that the one who originally said it was a Catholic lawyer.
God bless you.
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