Force Within the State, Since Before the 1550s

Phillip II

     During the 1550s, Philip II became king in Spain and gained control of some surrounding territories. Philip II was Catholic and gained a reputation using force against any heretics, which ultimately did not go well for him. This wasn’t the first or the last time force would be used by the state to silence opinions, so why does it keep happening?

     During this same time period, Saint Francis Xavier was traveling from Europe to Japan. He is a good example of how to accomplish the same goals Phillip had wanted to accomplish in the Netherlands. Saint Francis wanted to spread Catholicism to the Pagan and Hindu areas of the world, such as Japan. He first spread his religion to the women and children in Japan, and then the husbands followed, much as in  the model of the original Christian conversion throughout the Western world.

     Saint Francis was trying to show the people the ideals and values that came with Catholicism, demonstrating how, in ways, his family values agreed with Japanese values. He was trying to show the people that he could agree with them on the underlying ideas of their culture, they just needed to tweak a few things. This edification was the strategic way to give parts of Japan a Catholic culture, regardless of whether he was able to sell his belief to everyone he met.

     Philip II was not going to settle for having a Catholic culture. To him, anyone who said they were not Catholic was betraying him and the ways of his kingdom. He tried to convert by force the few Protestants in the Netherlands, which was mostly Catholic. But the Catholics in the Netherlands did not like Philip’s less than Christian way of handling the Protestants. They wanted him to leave them alone.

     Today’s culture has both ways of thought shining through. Among the people, everyone has differing opinions on politics and religion, and everyone thinks they are right, but there is no daily violence happening in the streets. People have a certain level of toleration. The culture expects people to get along with every viewpoint that there has ever been. On the other hand, the state still uses force on the people daily. It has become normalized so people don’t notice how much force the law uses. When they do notice, they tolerate it like they are expected to tolerate the differing opinions around them.