Professor Lemak's lecture.

On Friday, March 5, I had the pleasure of sitting in on Professor Lemak's lecture of patriotism. In this lecture I learned a great deal about ancient Greece and politics. What struck me as the most interesting, was that people used to be chosen by chance to lead their city-state. This was done by a lottery. To me, this makes no sense at all. This would mean that anybody could run the country.
From this lecture I formulated my own opinions on justice and authority. For instance, one question posed to us was how do we balance social justice with moral authority? This line is hard to draw. As seen in The Burial at Thebes Antigone faces this question when she chooses to bury her brother's body, even though she has strictly been forbidden from doing it by the King, Creon. Antigone was acting out in justice for her brother, and Creon was the authority. Though some people would call his morals questionable, it is obvious that he had good intentions. He just went about them the wrong way. In my personal opinion, Antigone was in the right. Authority always dominates, but that does not mean that a little rebellion is not necessary sometimes (also demonstrated by Professor Lemak's rock and roll presentation). The same can be said about "just" and "unjust" laws.
Social responsibility and justice are almost two sides of the same coin. It is one's social responsibility to help others, and in some way this can be seen as a social justice, however, nobody is expected Joe Shmoe to jump into an armed bank robbery. What is expected of normal every day people is that they help others and perform their duties to the best of their abilities, without putting themselves in immediate danger. People in power, on the other hand, are given much more responsibility, and so it is often times that something they do for the greater good can be looked down on if it does not suite everybody's needs. In this way, their devotion to the people they are trying to lead leaves them with very little freedom.
Leadership is constituted by a powerful position, in most cases. However, it is possible to be a leader by merely setting a good example to others around you (like an older sibling per say). Leaders are confronted with many issues, and sometimes they can be extremely hard to solve on your own. In The Burial at Thebes King Creon thought that he was making a morally sound choice by not burying the body of Polynices, because he was, after all, a traitor to his kingdom. Was this the right choice? In my opinion, no, however, that is why making moral decisions like this is so hard. No matter what, somebody is going to be unhappy. That is why it is necessary for the leader to make a decision based on the greater good of everybody.

"The Burial at Thebes - how not to lead." - Professor Lemak.

(Franco Perrelli. "Antigone." 18 November, 2007. Online image. Yahoo Creative Commons. 6, March 2010)

- Tia Lambert '13