Guest Blogger: Katie Tetzloff

With the beginning of a new school year, we have already begun so many interesting topics in both English and Government. Although the main portion of our Summer reading was The Prince by Machiavelli, we haven't yet discussed his outstanding brilliance. Instead we have been focusing on the great philosophers of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. With these men we have learned the inititives of government, what a paradigm really is, and how they are all connected.
Beginning with Hobbes, we read Chapter 13 from Leviathan in which he explains his opinions on the State of Nature and the Social Contract Theory. Hobbes does not think highly of mankind, describing us as “solitary, poor, nasty, [and] brutish.” He truly believes that in the State of Nature, complete anarchy, that every man is against every man in a continual war. Since self-preservation is instinctive, we are selfish creatures, unable to live in peace.Eventually, however, men rise together to form a commonwealth when Nature has become too intolerable; they realize that joinging together is really in each of their best interests. This commonwealth will only last if there is a mutual agreement to enter into a government, and if there is an authoritative power that is strong enough to enforce it. Because this is formed by a collective decision, they are prohibited to rebel against the governing body because, in reality, they are only rebelling against themselves.
John Locke, on the other hand, believes that man's State of Nature has complete liberty where each man may conduct his own life how he wishes. Even so, men will submit themselves to a commonwealth for the same reason as mentioned above: an arrangement that government will be beneficial to all of them. Locke, differing from Hobbes, then believes that rebellion is justifiable if this government turns into tyranny.
As we see from these two philosophers, government is a system that sets and enforces rules for a nation. Although there are multiple types of governments, all of them serve to keep order, regulate the economy, and provide defense.
Along with government comes paradigms: A paradigm sets rules for success. My governmental paradigm says that there must be a system similar to the US checks and balances so that no individual controls all the power. Hobbes' paradigm could be that the State of Nature is never peaceful. When a new idea is offered, there is a paradigm shift, and everyone gets put on a level playing field. Those who accept this change are called paradigm pioneers. This relates to Friedman's The World Is Flat and how America has a bad case of the Paradigm Effect and Paralysis: we fail to realize and accept that other countries could take the global lead. Since we have had success for so long, we do not realize that as things change, our method for success must change with it.