Guest Blogger: Taylor B.

Recently in class we have been talking a lot about the state of nature. Hobbes describes the state of nature as “poor, nasty, brutish and short”. He also says “Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice.” In class we discussed if there is injustice and justice in the state of nature. I think that there is no technical justice or injustice because there really is no one to enforce the laws. I think men have a conscience and they have morals, but who’s to say there’s a right and a wrong if no one has ever been taught the way. Locke is more optimistic in his thoughts with men. He believes that men want to be in a government. He believed that they yearn for the comfort of security. Hobbes, however, believes that men are always close to slipping back into the state of nature. He believes men to be selfish. Hobbes says “Nothing the sovereign do can possible be called injustice.” When people finally get into a government and elect a leader, Hobbes believes that rebellion is in no way justifiable. He says that if the men want to rebel against a leader that they chose, then they are rebelling against themselves. However Socrates said “The wisest men admit when they are wrong.” I think that it is okay to rebel against a leader if they are not following the contract laid out before them. Yes the people elected the person to be their leader, but they may not have seen what he was capable of doing. If a ruler is not following the contract the people can admit they were wrong in choosing a person who likes power, and put another person in his place. In class we talked about how men who want power, shouldn’t have it, but men who don’t necessarily want power should have it because normally they won’t become a tyrant. I find this interesting because for the articles we had to look up I found an article about Saddam Hussein. In the article it talked about his rise to power. He was always using people to get what he wanted. He was always hungry for power. Saddam used false trials to try and get the people to support him. Once they did, he had complete control. When the people of Iraq finally realized what was happening they couldn’t do anything about it. Wrapping all this up, men do not want to live in the state of nature, but when they have a government they need to be careful about who they put in charge and willing to admit when they are wrong.