Justice and Perspective

It seems an apt time to post the following in its entirety. Sometimes it’s how ye view things, and sometimes, it’s how others view ye.

Stay safe out there, mates!

An except from the writings of St. Augustuine (Aurelius Augustine, Bishop Of Hippo – now Annaba, Algeria), written between 416 & 426 AD.

The City of God (Book IV), Chapter 4.
— How Like Kingdoms Without Justice are to Robberies

Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on.

If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity.

Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pyrate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while thou who dost it with a great fleet are styled emperor!”