The Iron Throne

Power itself is not a physical thing, and yet objects can serve as demonstrations or representations of the power held by certain individuals.  One of the most historically common examples of an object that is tied to political authority, of course, is a throne.  It hardly surprising, then, that thrones have also signified power in fiction, including in the A Song of Ice and Fire book series and the show Game of Thrones, with the latter being derived from the former.

Game of Thrones provides a visual sign of the power associated with the status of King or Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.  The Iron Throne, like Tolkien's Ring of Power, is in one sense a physical representation of the power that so many characters are eager to obtain.  Whatever their intentions behind the endeavor to become ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, the characters who seek the throne ultimately seek not a mere chair comprised of swords, but the power that the chair symbolizes.

Despite the fact that many of the contenders are monstrous, their behaviors are not triggered by either the throne or the power it represents.  The Iron Throne has no ability to corrupt the men and women who pursue it, for evil cannot reside in an unconscious object.  Evil can only exist as long as there are evildoers: without a sentient being harboring evil intent or carrying out evil actions, evil does not exist.  Those who blame power for the injustices of leaders overlook the heart of the issue.  Neither power nor physical objects that represent power are problematic; it is only how and why power is pursued that can be immoral.

Many people are eager to blame power for corrupting leaders, as if humans are powerless to resist temptation, as if all people are tempted to misuse power, and as if power is inherently negative to begin with.  It takes little more than a few moments to refute each of these mistaken stances.  Simplistic, insufficient, fallacious ideas are always easier for the masses to grasp than accurate ones, of course--it should come as no surprise that the standard beliefs about power are asinine.

Power, even when it highly concentrated, is not itself evil, and thus a mere proximity to or the possession of political or social power is irrelevant to a person's moral character.  This means that no person who finds himself or herself tempted to abuse power is fated to inevitably descend into tyranny, as the mere exercise of power is not a sinful thing, and any temptation can be ignored or resisted.  It is far easier to get many people to admit these facts, though, than it is to bring them to acknowledge that not even having extraordinary power is a moral temptation to everyone.

The fault of anyone who fails to use power righteously lies with that person alone; no title, rank, crown, or throne can make a person use his or her power unjustly or selfishly.  Evil resides nowhere except in the hearts of evildoers.  The problem with Westeros was never the Iron Throne, but was always instead the fact that the overwhelming majority of its inhabitants, like the overwhelming majority of humans across all of recorded history, are shallow, hypocritical, and philosophically and morally incompetent.