The Ring of Gyges: What Would People Do With Unlimited Power?

Introduction

I agree fully with Plato that when people acquire unimaginable power or even just a little bit of authority, they will misuse it and pursue their interests. If people were to have the ring of Gyges, they would sneak into people's houses unseen, rob them, avoid paying loans, scare people with invisibility and be promiscuous among other vices. I am going to recap the story of Gyges and the ring to support my thesis. In book 2 of Plato's Republic, Glaucon and Socrates are discussing what constitutes justice. Glaucon tells a story of Gyges, who was one of the shepherds of the King of Lydia. One day while Gyges was tending the flock, there was a storm and an earthquake and a large opening on the earth. Gyges descended the opening where he saw a dead man with a ring on his finger. He removed the ring and put it on. When he rejoined his fellow shepherds, Gyges found out that if he turned the top of the ring inwards, it made him invisible. With this new power, he seduced the queen, and they conspired together and killed the Lydian king, taking the throne. I admit that the story of the ring of Gyges sounds like a great villain or anti-hero backstory but, more than that, Plato used Gyge's story to good effect regarding justice, power, and human selfishness. I agree that if a man is unchecked and if he gains too much power, he does unthinkable and self-serving things.

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I will use the story of the Lord of the Rings to support my thesis. I watched the first movie for the first time when I was around nine years old, and since then I have watched it a few more times because it is awesome. The movies in the Lord of the Rings franchise (where I include The Hobbit movies) also take into account a ring of uncontrollable power. The ring, like Gyges, also made the wearer invisible. In the movies, there are various races like humans, dwarves, elves, trolls, and wizards like Gandalf the Grey. However, the hobbit Frodo is the one entrusted to carry the ring by the wizard Gandalf. The ring corrupts even the best of men as shown by Boromir, who at one point wanted to kill Frodo and Samwise to take the ring for himself. At the end of the third movie, Frodo succeeds in destroying the ring at the mountain where it was forged. Before being made into the blockbuster movies, The Lord of the Rings was originally a book written by J.R.R. Tolkien. I cannot help wondering if Tolkien read about the ring of Gyges from Plato's Republic and was inspired to conceive that story. In my view, the Lord of the Rings is the best example that power corrupts even the best of us. Hobbits are the smallest and most harmless of all the races in The Lord of the Rings. Even so, the ring almost corrupted Frodo the hobbit the few times he put it on.

I can imagine that somebody might have another story that might challenge my thesis. Let us use the story of the oldest comic book Superhero; Superman. Superman or Clark Kent and sometimes Kal El has every power you can imagine. He can fly; he has heat vision, super speed, x-ray vision, super strength... the list can fill this page. To top it off Superman is an alien, from the destroyed planet Krypton. He is often called "The Last Son of Krypton." Superman was raised in a farm in the small town of Smallville, Kansas by principled human beings and farmers, the Kents- and named Clark Kent. The Kents hid his superpowers from people when he was a child and a teenager. Later on, as an adult, he works as a reporter at the Daily Planet in the city of Metropolis and the savior of the city from villains such as Lex Luthor, like Superman. Clark Kent/ Superman has all the powers in the world, and yet he chooses to serve humans selflessly.

My opinion is that it is very easy for Superman to forget about his principles and just take over the world. He has the power to rule over the world and few people if any can stop him. Even though in the movie Batman versus Superman, Batman somehow beat him, it was only because Superman was holding back his full might. I ask myself why Superman is not adamant about taking over the world like aliens are prone to take for example his fellow Kryptonian General Zod, who wants to rebuild the earth into a new Krypton. Superman is only self-less because he was lucky to have been found by the Kents, who have moral values. If Lex Luthor's father had found the baby Kal El, maybe Superman and Lex could have been the greatest villain duo in the DC Comics Universe. Hence, my argument for the case of Superman is that he had good, fair parents and that is why he is a superhero, and not just an all-powerful maniac bent on making the world burn. Also, Superman grew up in a small town with human friends, and he even falls in love with Lois, a human. These are the reasons Superman is humble- because he considers himself a human. If Superman were to consider himself Kryptonian, humans would not be safe at all.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the story of Superman (and most comic book superheroes) is an exception to the rule of power and selfishness going together. For me, more likely results of acquiring great and unlimited power can be seen in the lives of Alexander the Great, The Persian and Roman Empires, Napoleon, Mussolini, Stalin, Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin Dada and many other conquerors and dictators in history. Power makes people pursue their selfish interests, and in so doing persecuting others. We should endeavor to check ourselves, more so for people in authority, so that we avoid misusing power and instead be just and fair in dispensing justice, duties, and responsibility in our interactions with others.