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A very Hobbesian view of society, I see. Not one I subscribe to, nor one that, from my experience, is reflective of reality. Prison experiences in the US are p

A very Hobbesian view of society, I see. Not one I subscribe to, nor one that, from my experience, is reflective of reality. Prison experiences in the US are pretty horrific in the norm, and yet there are more people in prison than ever (as a percentage of the population), and many of them are there due to fairly minor or victimless crimes. There is some sort of dissonance there, and I think it comes down to the fact that fear is not the sole or even necessarily the primary motivator for behavior on the boundary of the law. Also, there are countries where prison is not scary, where the criminal justice system raises rehabilitation above other concerns, and such places (such as Canada and the scandinavian countries) are not the lawless hellholes your theory of human behavior would have them be.

RyanMcGreal 13y ago
Sidenote because I agree with the main thrust of your argument, but: > A very Hobbesian view of society, I see. Not at all. The central argument in Hobbes' Leviathan is that most people are basically decent and reasonable, but that we need a strong, consistent rule of law in which to relax our guard and build personal, civic and business relationships with each other in a positive sum game where everyone benefits. It is the fear of violence and death in the absence of the rule of law that leads to the Hobbesian trap: a tragic situation in which someone who doesn't want trouble ends up pre-emptively raiding someone else who also doesn't want trouble, simply because they have no way to trust one other.