After the Election media focus has now switched from the fresh personalities and style of the new Government to the difficulties that face it. These include the financial pressures created by heavy debt and inflation, the constraints imposed by pledges made before the election, an energy crisis, international conflicts and their effects on trade, and differences within the Party. Faced by such challenges the Government is unlikely to be able to fulfil its promises and its supporters’ hopes.
This failure raises the question of how we respond to the failure of government to deliver. It is easy to attribute it to cowardice, laziness, backsliding or treachery. These, of course, may be factors. It also may be worth reflecting, however, on the concept of ‘necessity’ developed by St Augustine, the fifth century Bishop and unillusioned observer of his society under pressures not unlike our own. It was a time when Rome had been sacked by the Visigoths, Augustine’s North Africa was also at risk, and the focus of Imperial policy had moved towards the East. Conservative Roman commentators blamed the Roman abandonment of the Gods and embrace of Christian faith for the collapse of Roman power.
In his monumental City of God Augustine argued that the qualities his opponents identified as central to the growth of Roman power had led to its decline. The desire for glory and for domination had bred unceasing war and the cult of personality reflected in making the Emperors Gods. Augustine argued that the search for God and the generous life that flow from faith in Christ are the only foundation for civic health.
In his deconstruction of the culture of imperial Rome Augustine mocks the patriotic claim that Roman judges should be considered fortunate or happy. He claims that in judging suits brought by one person against another they always make their decisions in ignorance, relying on evidence that is uncertain. The Roman judicial system addressed this defect by torturing the witnesses to establish the truth. As at Guantanamo Bay, however, some witnesses would lie to incriminate others or even to incriminate themselves to avoid further torture. In Roman practice, Augustine says, this would mean that the judge
‘has tortured an innocent man to get to the truth and has killed him while still in ignorance. In view of this darkness that attends the life of human society, will our wise man take his seat on the judge’s bench,