I’ve been reading the Bible in one year, again, and this time doing it chronologically.  I’ve just finished the reign of King Ahab, possibly the worst king of Israel (there was one who was worse in Judah, I think).  King Ahab represents everything you shouldn’t do when you are a leader of millions of people and hold complete control over their lives.  He is also an excellent reason for libertarianism because no matter how foolproof the system may be, there will always someone like Ahab to mess it all up.

So just what did Ahab do that made him such a terrible king?  There is a laundry list, but I want to focus on a few incidents in his life.

The first thing was how he reacted when he wasn’t able to buy a vineyard from one of his fellow subjects.  He wanted the vineyard because he wanted his own special garden built there or something.  Really it didn’t matter because he was rejected as the owner wanted to keep the vineyard that was essentially his inheritance.  His property, his choice, after all.

But King Ahab was not happy about the decision.  So instead of accepting the man’s decision and moving on, he went up into his bed chamber and sulked like a baby for a very long time.  His wife, Jezebel, took notice of this and asked him what was wrong.  When Ahab explained the situation, she promptly had the man killed and Ahab proceeded to take the vineyard.

This story illustrates the kind of man Ahab was.  He was nothing more than child in a man’s body, easily influenced by his deceitful wife who sleep with many other men besides her husband.  Talk about a big wimp.  For a man who is suppose to have the skills to rule over millions of people, he sure did not seem to have much sway over his own wife.  And he was perfectly willing to allow her to oppress his subjects provided he got something in return.

In another incident, Ahab was meeting with Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and consulting various prophets concerning going to war.  Jehoshaphat asked if there were any prophets of the Lord among them that he could consult, because he was a righteous man.  King Ahab’s response was that there was one, but he always said bad things about him so he didn’t like him.

Jehoshaphat responded simply that a king should not say such things.  I wholeheartedly agree.  When you find yourself in a position of power and authority, you will be faced with many critics and people who will say things you won’t like.  That doesn’t mean that they are wrong and you are right.  So not only is Ahab a whiny man-child, he is also arrogant and only wants to hear certain things.

Well, this prophet did say something bad, that Ahab would die in the subsequent battle, despite the Israelite victory (I think they won that battle, although they probably didn’t, it was difficult for me to tell exactly what happened over all).  So Ahab has King Jehoshaphat ride into battle like a king while he hides among the army as a regular soldier.  The opposing army was ordered to target only the king of Israel and so they attacked Jehoshaphat.  During the fight, these soldiers figured out that Jehoshaphat wasn’t Ahab, and so they let him flee.  Meanwhile, Ahab gets struck by an arrow and dies by sunset on that day.  Ancient Greek playwrights couldn’t have written a better ending for this scumbag.

So what was the problem with King Ahab?  Well, he was childish, lacked wisdom, believed himself to be always right, and never, ever could take criticism from anyone who spoke the truth.

And I believe that Barack Obama perfectly echoes King Ahab’s personality in many ways.  His wife is controlling and domineering and she likes to show off her fancy dresses.  She even convinced Obama to let her mother live in the Whitehouse.  He himself can’t take criticism, not even jokes about his big ears, as evidenced by his attacks on Faux News (as they shall be forever dubbed by shutting out Ron Paul last year).  He is arrogant, believing that he has the will of the people behind him, and he comes off as a child in his dealings.

President Barack Obama is a modern day Ahab, weak-willed and easily swayed by others who are stronger willed than he is.

I remember when I was in the sixth grade and we were all outside for a fire drill.  Some kids were running through a puddle, splashing water all over themselves because everyone else was doing it and it was apparently the cool thing to do.  Then one of my teacher walked and yelled at them saying, “Common sense tells you to not do that.”  The look of disgust at the idiocy of my fellow students was priceless.

Unfortunately, these days I find that just about of those we place in authority lack one of the cardinal virtues: prudence.  Prudence is common sense and one who has prudence has the ability to utilize their wisdom and discipline to their fullest extent.  As King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 19:25, “Flog a mocker and the simple will learn prudence; rebuke a discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.”

These days our culture has rejected harsh discipline for some strange and incomprehensible reason.  Harsh discipline and strict punishments for those who commit crimes have go the wayside and as a result we get repeat offenders more often than rehabilitated, productive members of society.  This latest episode with Clemens who killed four police officers should be a chilling reminder of why we should dismantle all parole boards and make criminals serve their full sentences.

But I think it runs much deeper than simply imposing harsh discipline.  People need to develop the virtue of prudence otherwise they will see their intelligence and their wisdom go to waste.  I asked people what the opposite of an idiot savant was and no one really could give a proper term for it.  Somehow, intellectual moron just doesn’t seem to fit with me.  But we have to agree that there are plenty of people out there who have an IQ many people would sell their souls for and lack all semblance of prudence.  Don’t worry, they usually work in colleges where they do the least amount of harm.

Prudence is one the seven virtues that are opposite the seven vices (or deadly sins).  It is not a Biblical virtue, any more than the seven deadly sins are Biblical, but it is pivotal to believers and non-believers alike.  Without out, we become subject to the control of others who have it.  In essence, we lose our individuality, our sense of self, without it.

A lack of prudence is probably the primary reason for all the insane laws that governments at levels pass in order to protect us from ourselves.  How many laws are passed involving fire safety, when this should be common knowledge to everyone?  How many laws are passed for  driving on the roads, when most car crashes can be avoided by simply driving sensibly?

The fact of the matter is, most people lack prudence in big ways and when they do, they end up voting for Statists.  This is because the Statists promise them things that most people would normally not even trust with their own parents.  And so a lack of common sense is the primary reason for the expansion of government in our modern era.  Most people recognize that everyone else lacks sense except for themselves and so they assume that the government will fill in the void for them.

I am not saying that I am perfectly prudent all the time.  But I do have a good sense of things more often than not.  It really isn’t hard once you start applying your own thought processes to everyday situations and not letting your emotions rule your mind.  No, I am not a robot and I do feel emotions.  But I don’t let them consume me and my own thinking, anymore than I let my own logic rule over me.  While both are never in perfect equilibrium, both have a healthy balance in my life, for the most part.

This is what we should strive to do.  We should all strive for common sense.  The best way to attain it to start reading up on it.  If you are a Christian, then I would recommend reading the book of Proverbs in the Bible (incidentally, I find that most Christians only read the New Testament to their own detriment).  If you are a non-believer, then you’ll have to look elsewhere and unfortunately, I have nothing I can recommend.  It’s not that I haven’t read non-Christian books before, it’s simply that I haven’t been interested in reading anything on the subject.

But you must obtain prudence because from it, all other virtues flow forth.  Because our society is full of greedy, selfish individuals (not really much different from the rest of the world), it takes strong prudence to deal with them.  If we are to save our society from tyranny, then our only course of action is to encourage and grow prudence in others.