Leviathan - Making ruthless dictators look cool since 1651

Thomas Hobbes originally published Leviathan in 1651 amid the uneasiness that followed the Thirty Years’ War. Essentially, Leviathan is a justification of the central premise of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia which ended the war; Power would be vested in national monarchs instead of the Papacy. Hobbes clearly fears that if the support of absolute national rulers was to falter, the entire continent would descend into tribal warfare. Hence, the overwhelming message of Leviathan is that anarchy is a greater danger than despotism.

According to Hobbes, the creation of a “soveraigne” occurs with a consensus of support from the people, however, once the ruler has been installed he is unimpeachable:

I authorize and give up my right of governing myself, to this Man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition, that thou give up thy right to him, and authorize all his action in a like manner.

I find it interesting that Hobbes explicitly gives approval to this power being vested in an assembly in lieu of a monarch. It seems that an assembly would represent a microcosm of the animalistic tendencies he sees being so pervasive in human interaction, lending itself to anarchy, corruption, and indecisiveness.

In summary, Hobbes is a very depressed realist who sees mankind as too self-serving to wield the powers inherent in democracy. Tragically undermined by his short-sightedness, it is easy to dismiss Hobbes as an antiquated eccentric. However, Hobbes was a man of turbulent times and history has shown that similar circumstances of anarchy and conflict have compelled people to cry out for order…often at any cost. For all his intellectual faults, Hobbes understood the darkest corners of society and typified the human response to chaos.