No subject

[Neil Dewhurst]

Julien wrote...

a society such as the one John Lennon sings about in "Imagine" : a
brother/sistehood of men/women that would share the world together in love,
peace and harmony (which are the common goal, whatever Morrissey can say).

...although I think Locke (or it may be Hobbes) would disagree.  According
to Locke, man's natural state is war and conflict.  His socio-political
model is roughly, give or take a few interpretations and a bit of memory
loss, as follows.

		Before a society is formed, you have a disparate collection
of people or peoples all or some of whom are in ownership of distinct
territories.  The extent of the territory is not important - it could be a
small circle carved round where you sit, but basically what is important is
that they feel that it is theirs.  When another person arrives on the
horizon, they are a potential threat to your territory.  You don't welcome
them with open arms because they may cross you, perhaps by killing you, and
thus claim ownership of your territory.  By being nice, you have been
deprived of your territory, and possibly killed.  Your victor now owns more
land etc, etc.

		This expands into a political model, where people in a
society appreciate that they need rules to stop this kind of barbarity, so
they club together and elect in some way an individual to rule them.  Given
the potentially evil nature of their leader they give him / her limited
powers within which they can rule, so if their leader oversteps they get to
oust them.  I think in the Hobbes model everyone is so loving and kind and
naïve that they just elect someone and decide that they're so trustworthy
they give them unlimited power, probably because they weren't around when
Lord Acton told the world that "power tends to corrupt.  Absolute power
corrupts absolutely."

Apologies to esteemed political students and academics on the list if I've
lied, pretended I know things I don't, or just get everything the wrong way
round.

B&S content?...erm, if you play B&S music to people they won't invade your
territory?

Love neil
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
      +---+  Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list  +---+
 To send to the list please mail "sinister at majordomo.net". To unsubscribe
   send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
 "majordomo at majordomo.net".  For list archives and searching, list rules,
   FAQ, poor jokes etc, see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister
          +---+   "legion of bedroom saddo devotees"  +---+
 +-+  "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list"  +-+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+