Not that you can legitimately say that you are interested in learning my name because in reality no one cares about one another, my name is Thomas Hobbes. I have learned in life to never assume the positive. It is better to think negatively, because deep down no one is good. I believe that in a state of nature the population is dominated by scarcity of resources and fear. Every man is for themselves, and life is not a pleasant thing. In terms of natural rights, the only one we have is to protect one's self in any way possible, meaning violence is okay. I also believe that there is no such thing as a natural right to property, since in nature there is no property- just possession. I also believe in egoism, which is that all human acts are motivated by self- interest and the quest for power.
One of my main theories is about the social contract. I believe that there should always be a third party in a state of nature- acting as a form of government- despite its inevitable abuse of power, because that is better than the alternative- which is not having a government at all. It is important that there is a third party in society so that disputes are solved within the public, even if that government is corrupt. It is better to have some sort of order so that chaos from not having established laws and rules is prevented. I do not believe that the citizens should be able to elect their leaders, but truthfully I don't think that they would be capable of doing so in the first place.
If you don't believe that humans only look out for themselves, then please try explain this one to me. Bernard Lawrence Madoff- now locked away in prison for a minimum of 150 years- successfully executed the largest Ponzi scheme in history. He managed to steal billions of dollars for himself, from people who trusted him in managing their money. He is responsible for causing thousands of people financial problems, because he acted as a corrupt third party so to speak. He certainly was after the quest for power, because why else would he want all that money. Bernie is an extremely greedy man. I wonder if he thought that money was scarce, and that he simply could never get enough of it?
Bernie leaving court with his Lawyer
Another notorious self-centered character in modern pop culture is Mr. Grinch. Sure, he is well known mainly because of his mean and cold heartedness, but if you really think about his beliefs you can see how they are similar to mine. Mr. Grinch was a complete negative thinker. He was selfish and wanted to ruin Christmas for all and have the toys for himself. He never had faith in others, and relied only on himself to get food to survive. He went through trash in order to find food and things for his house because where he lived there was a scarcity of resources. He also was responsible for causing fear among his neighbors in Whoville. He proved that in a natural environment, there is always fear- and he actually was the reason for it.
Mr. Grinch and Cindy Lou Who
(If you think about the book The Lord of the Flies, Mr. Grinch relates to the Beastie because they both caused people so much fear.)
January 30th, 1972 was an awful day in history. On this day in Northern Ireland, roughly 30 people were directly affected -either killed or hurt- but indirectly millions of people were too. A march protesting against the policy of internment started out peaceful, but was abruptly ended violently by British troops because marching was banned by Parliament at the time. U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday was released in 1983 from their album appropriately titled "War" in attempt to express the horror and distress felt from an observer of the tragic event. Their purpose was to draw attention to the horrific actions of those soldiers. This connects to my ideas that the world is filled with fear- fear of others, fear of the unknown, and fear of what is to come. The reason U2 would make a song like this is because they are afraid that something like this will happen again. The sad thing is that this is true, and something like this happens almost every day it seems. The world is filled with people and governments who simply want more, and want to be in control. If that means killing to get their way, then they go ahead and do it, because deep down no one is good.
A British soldier attacking a protester.
No comments:
Post a Comment