• technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    14 days ago

    it has brought about larger societies in which technology and the rule of law have dramatically reduced the amount of violence the average person suffers (he compares the stone age to modern times)

    lmao. Who believes this pseudo-scientific nonsense?

    Ofc the author is a (british) classics professor. Unqualified and steeped in white supremacy. I almost barfed at the apparently serious reference to Hobbes. Just another jordan perterson style grifter…

        • Lileath@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          14 days ago

          Not Shezznazz but Hobbes thought of the “natural state” of humanity as war of everyone against everyone with the only motivation being profit to oneself. The way to escape that state of being was to form a state where all members relinquish their individual power to a single person or group who then intimidate everyone into following the rules they made up by punishing them if they don’t.

          It is pretty much just an attempt to justify the divine right of kings in a more or less scientific/philosophical way.

        • shezznazz@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          14 days ago

          Hobbs and even rosseu both had simplistic mindset on pre history humans that were incredible naiive and harmful towards ant progression of understanding. Hobbs believed in the savage brutish and short life of these people, while rosseu believed they were all loving, peaceful, and egalitarian. In reality, humans are humans, very smart, and complex social organisations haven’t been with us well before the first villages or towns became a thing. I have an issue with both, but arguably, hobbs with so much worse, so much more racist and backwards too. The kinda guy if was alive today you’d want to beat up