you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]Fitter_HappierWhite Nationalist[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

SS:

...

Here I want to focus on a passage from the Leviathan that speaks to the causes of human conflict (quarrel), and why we can’t all just get along: “So, that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel: first competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory.”[5]

This succinct passage hits like a lightning bolt. Hobbes has captured the entire range of human motivations that inevitably and perpetually drive human beings into conflict with each other. He continues:

The first maketh men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third for reputation. The first use violence to make themselves masters of other men’s persons, wives, children and cattle; the second to defend themselves; the third for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons, or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name.[6]

...