In Plato’s Republic, Socrates and his interlocutors are in pursuit of a good definition and understanding of justice. In Book Two, Glaucon suggests there is no man so virtuous that he could resist the temptation of doing injustice to whomever he pleased if he could do so without fearing detection. Glaucon says,
Even those who practice [justice] do so unwillingly, from an incapacity to do injustice, we would best perceive if we should in thought do something like this: give each, the just man and the unjust, license to do whatever he wants, while we follow and watch where his desire will lead each. We would catch the just man red-handed going the same way as the unjust man out of a desire to get the better; this is what any nature naturally pursues as good, while it is law which by force perverts it to honor equality. The license of which I speak would best be realized if they should come into possession of the sort of power that it is said the ancestor of Gyges, the Lydian, once got.
He then proceeds to tell the story of Gyges, a shepherd who upon experiencing a great thunderstorm and an earthquake, discovered that a chasm had opened at the place where he was pasturing. Gyges descended into the chasm to explore it and found a hollow bronze horse with a corpse inside that looked larger than human size. On the corpse, he discovered a gold ring that when worn and adjusted just right, turned him invisible. After testing the ring on his fellow shepherds, Gyges used his new power to sneak into the king’s palace, commit adultery with his wife, and then kill the king and take his throne.
It it probably evident to most readers at this point that Gyges’ Ring (along with its sister Norse myth, The Ring of Nebelung) is the basis for Tolkien’s One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. For Tolkien, the ring symbolizes power and man’s inability to harness it justly. Thus, Gollum is deformed by it, Boromir is killed because of it, and Bilbo and Frodo are changed and nearly killed by it.
For Plato, the myth of Gyges’ Ring is a thought experiment that asks us to consider what we would do if we were certain we would never get caught and never get punished for doing it? In the Republic, Glaucon is convinced no man, no matter how just he seems, is capable of resisting the temptation to take what he wants, sleep with who he wants, and kill who he wants if fear of the law is removed (i.e., detection and punishment). It seems even the Greeks, without the aid of Scripture, were able to recognize the fallen nature of man.
But this brings me to the intended point. The internet (along with other tools and technologies) is a kind of modern Gyges’ Ring. To get a glimpse of our own soul, we need only ask what websites we would visit, what accounts would we create, what person would we engage with sexually, and who would we pretend to be if it were certain we could do so undetected and without punishment.
This is how monitoring software and browser filters seem helpful. They attempt to prevent a person from doing what they want to do on the internet since they won’t be able to do it without being detected. But for this same reason, this is why monitoring software and browser filters are not so helpful. They don’t address the heart of the issue.
What Glaucon got right is that mankind is fallen so it is impossible for him to be entirely just without the law. However, what the Greeks and so many people today who rely on monitoring software and browser filters don’t get right is the heart of the issue can only be fixed by applying the gospel to it.
The gospel changes a person’s want to (Philippians 2:12-13) so that when the restraints of the law are removed, they don’t want to do injustice—even if they could do so without ever being detected.
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