Thomas Hobbes is remembered for his
consequential work called “Leviathan” which was first published in 1651. It was
in the aftermath of the English civil war which saw the forces of the King and the
parliament head to head against each other. This resulted into a situation of
chaos, misery and war. The war lasted for a decade killing more than 200,000. Hobbes
witnessed the beheading of the King, Charles I in 1649 first hand. All of this resulted into him pondering about
the human relationship with governments. Hobbes thus produced one of the most
definitive, persuasive and eloquent statements on why governments should be
obeyed.
To explain human nature, Hobbes took back
his readers to the primordial ages where there was no central authority of any
sorts present. He called this the ‘state of nature’. According to Hobbes, the
life in the state of nature was nasty, brutish and short. With nobody to
regulate human affairs at its helm, everybody was an enemy of everybody else.
The times in which Hobbes lived played
a significant role in how he came to view human nature. The debate around the
extent to which a ruler should be obeyed was ongoing. Earlier, in the middle
ages and before that the logic to obeying the ruler was simple but effective.
The divine right of kings to rule took care of the logic behind obeying rulers.
Whoever did not obey the king was acting against the will of God and will end
up in hell was the belief of the time. However, the times Hobbes lived in posed
the challenge of defining the contract between the people and government anew.
Hobbes argued, humans are incapable of
regulating their own affairs. Without a governing authority, the society was
doomed to collapse. The inherent selfish nature of human beings made it
difficult for them to cooperate with each other and thus they need to be managed,
if need be coerced into following the established authority for saving the
society from utter chaos. Hobbes agreed that rulers may abuse their powers once
they acquire them. They may not be just in their conduct. However, these
shortcomings are no reason for people to go for a revolution, Hobbes said.
Hobbes went on to say that the ruler
must be obeyed at all costs. No matter what his policies are. Even an
authoritarian ruler who is least concerned with the welfare of his subjects
needs to be obeyed. One exception that Hobbes made regarding revolting against
the ruler was if the ruler decided to kill all his subjects.
Hobbes was particularly pessimistic
about human nature. For him, humans in the state of nature, after experiencing
chaos and disarray, had somehow come along and decided to establish a
government to regulate human affairs. The human nature demands governments to
save humans from other human beings by means of law and authority. Governments
play an important role in parting a sense of security in its subjects. By
monopolizing the right to legitimate use of violence within a territory,
governments disarm all the other individuals from harming each other argued
Hobbes.
Hobbes was of the view that, to
conduct human affairs without complaints is impossible. Thus, he advised, if
one had a problem with his/her government he may go on and complain but resorting
to revolution was not at all an option for Hobbes. The significance of Hobbes’
view of human nature is evident even today after more than three centuries of
the writing of Leviathan. Every time a protest against a government or a revolution
goes in disarray, the document comes as a reminder for all of us as to why
governments should be obeyed.
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