I’ve been suggested Behemoth by Franz Neumann. Apparently, Mussolini sounds very Hobbesian. I can’t seem to find an e-edition anywhere!
EDIT: I’ve been reading about the book and it sounds much more like it’s about Nazi Germany than Fascist Italy. Oh, and interestingly enough someone was surprised to find that the author talks much more than is normally done about the economic situation in Nazi Germany. Yeah, dude, Neumann was a Marxist…
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I’m feeling too lazy to read the wiki-community’s bio of Hobbes–what would a super short synopsis of his philosophy be?
Absolutism of the state. Seriously, that was what he was a fan of. Strange fandom, really.
Yup. Life in the state of nature is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” A strong sovereign / state is necessary to dominate our destructive natural urges and force us to play nice.
But how can a government formed by those very same brutish natures be a force for good?
Hey, I posted that paper on Sicilian “machismo.” http://cuntaripalazzi.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/omerta/
How can a government formed by those very same brutish natures be a force for good? Wow. That is a great question, Aachren, and when applied to man it is wonderful. I think that a proper to answer to that question would form the basis of a good government. It is not, however, what Hobbes meant.
Hobbes said, as Dr. D indicates, that life in the state of nature (the natural world, without social order) is chaos, the world of the law of the jungle, dog-eat-dog, etc. As Hobbes (I think) said, “Nature red in tooth and claw” (and even if he didn’t say it, the expressive imagery does his ideas justice. Dr Dyke quotes him directly on the very vivid, memorable line). Hobbes believed that we surrender autonomy so fully in forming a compact constructive of the sovereign, that we place our very lives in his hands. Hmmm. Sounds like the theory needs a little remodeling, which – thank God – later thinkers performed.
Yeah, still Hobbes’ idea only makes sense if you can have a government formed by natures that aren’t formed by brutality.