The Ring of Gyges
I always interpreted this story a bit differently than what most appear to (on the internet). Granted I suppose I should read it again (the actual story) as opposed the piecemeal version I have in my mind through uni courses years ago and from various conversations over the years. This how how I've always seen it:
The ring of gyges is a very powerful artifact. It gives the user the power of invisibility (Tolkien's one ring?) Apparently the story gets into the idea of justice and injustice, but I saw it a little more simply - the ring is a metaphor for power.
A person who has power, whatever it may be - maybe you're a beautiful woman that leverages that beauty for personal gain (hello 'softcore' twitch streamers who earn upwards of $60,000/mo, or your typical Kardashian equivalent, or whatever other pop culture icon you can think of) - maybe you're a born brilliant whatever, maybe you're especially charismatic and find a place in politics. Whatever it is, that power is yours, and the problem of such power is that, inevitably, there are people who will hate you for using it.
But if you had such power, and didn't use it - lets say, again, you're some stunningly beautiful model whose fitness and aesthetics put you in the top tenth of a percentile - you would still draw the ire of other people who don't have such power. They might make assumptions about you - that you've taken advantage of said power in the past - or they might berate you for not using such power . . . "If only I had your looks, I'd certainly be a model or an entrepreneur or whatever."
The ring of gyges, then, leads to a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario. The nature of our world and our own species is that some of us are born with innate gifts, powers, talents, and we are judged on whether or not we use those gifts according to whoever happens to be doing the judging at any given moment. There's no way to 'legislate' these gifts out, to equalize our own capacities. They are part of the fabric of our existence.
One might argue that the true injustice is the world we're born into - that it could be so inequitable by its very design - and not that people benefit or are disadvantaged as a result of such inequitable circumstances. Admittedly, we compound such natural injustice by unnecessarily reinforcing it in our social and economic hierarchies.
The ring of gyges is a very powerful artifact. It gives the user the power of invisibility (Tolkien's one ring?) Apparently the story gets into the idea of justice and injustice, but I saw it a little more simply - the ring is a metaphor for power.
A person who has power, whatever it may be - maybe you're a beautiful woman that leverages that beauty for personal gain (hello 'softcore' twitch streamers who earn upwards of $60,000/mo, or your typical Kardashian equivalent, or whatever other pop culture icon you can think of) - maybe you're a born brilliant whatever, maybe you're especially charismatic and find a place in politics. Whatever it is, that power is yours, and the problem of such power is that, inevitably, there are people who will hate you for using it.
But if you had such power, and didn't use it - lets say, again, you're some stunningly beautiful model whose fitness and aesthetics put you in the top tenth of a percentile - you would still draw the ire of other people who don't have such power. They might make assumptions about you - that you've taken advantage of said power in the past - or they might berate you for not using such power . . . "If only I had your looks, I'd certainly be a model or an entrepreneur or whatever."
The ring of gyges, then, leads to a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario. The nature of our world and our own species is that some of us are born with innate gifts, powers, talents, and we are judged on whether or not we use those gifts according to whoever happens to be doing the judging at any given moment. There's no way to 'legislate' these gifts out, to equalize our own capacities. They are part of the fabric of our existence.
One might argue that the true injustice is the world we're born into - that it could be so inequitable by its very design - and not that people benefit or are disadvantaged as a result of such inequitable circumstances. Admittedly, we compound such natural injustice by unnecessarily reinforcing it in our social and economic hierarchies.