Monday, February 4, 2008

State of Nature

I thought it was appropriate after posting yesterday's essay to do a little something about the state of nature.

We had coverd the views of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau earlier in the year in my history class, so it was just a refresher to go on wiki and look them up.

My source for the following is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Nature

I come from a religious background, so my views will be "tainted." I must agree with Hobbes that man is naturally powerful and all men are equally killable. This cannot be questioned. Locke's view of nature being one of peace is not true. My views lie closer to those of David Hume, in that we are born evil and society shapes us. If the United States government was to be eliminated by some act of God tonight, the state of nature would take affect and it would differ from area to area.

In inner cities and urban areas, there is a good chance that riots would break out. Looting and pillaging would occur. There is already a considerable gang influence in many neighborhoods. These gangs would become the law after a time. There would be no universal laws as each gang would control a district.In time, order may be established again, but this is dependent upon how well the gangs govern.

In the rural areas, there situation is much trickier. There are old-fashioned people who would band together to preserve themselves and each other similar to how prairie communities operated. There would also be the terribly paranoid who would squander and isolate for themselves, killing anyone that came near. I believe that an order among the communities would eventually setup and a leader would be either elected or take power. Life would resort much quicker to that of tribal communities.

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