Thomas Hobbes, a seventeenth century political philosopher writes that without government,

There is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. This statement stems from Hobbes observations on human nature and his study of history and politics in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (Hobbes: Para 09)

Hobbes statement rings true probably more so today than in his time. Modern governments provide their citizens with far more than protection from alien invasions. Modern governments (particularly western democracies) provide a stable, relatively free and prosperous society. Therefore, without these stable governments protecting the interests of the public that it serves, s

Society without government would be void of all infrastructure, government programs, corporations, laws and morals, and everything else that differentiates humans from common animals. In the absence of these conditions the instinct of man would cause society to revert back to what Thomas Hobbes calls the “Laws of Nature.” (Hobbes: Para 13). Society locked in a state of nature and absent of all that I have discussed, would, in a comparative sense to today’s society become truly, “Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish, and Short.” (Hobbes: Para 09)

Sewage treatment and sanitation have become part of our front line defense in the fight of bacterial epidemics. Between 1347 and 1352 approximately the Bubonic Plague killed 25 million people in Europe. (Rice). The Plague is spread by being bitten by infected rodents and is then contagious through the coughs of the infected individuals. Modern sanitation has removed the majority of places that rodents live and breed, from the homes of the general public thus restricting contact between humans

In a society without the avenues of non-violent conflict resolution, mankind would revert back to settling all differences with violence because without laws no act could be condemned by the majority, and therefore cannot be immoral or illegal.

In January of 1998, parts of eastern Ontario and Quebec were under blackout conditions due to a severe storm that dumped approximately 80 millimeters of freezing rain. As a result of that storm at least twenty-five people died of hypothermia, and approximately one million people were without electricity for a substantial amount of time. (Environment Canada).

The constant fear of attack, robbery, or death combined with the solitary, poor, and nasty existence created in the void of effective government would make our lives especially “brutish”.

Some topics in this essay:
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