Hereby it is manifest that during the
time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that
condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every
man. FOR WAR consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting, but in a
tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known;
therefore the notion of time is to be
considered in the nature of war, as it is in the nature of weather. For as the nature of foul weather lieth not
in a shower or two of rain, but in an inclusion thereto of many days together,
so the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting, but in the known disposition
thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is peace.
Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of
war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time
wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their
own invention shall furnish them withal.
In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit
thereof is uncertain; and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation,
nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building;
no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no
knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no
society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent
death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.[1]
Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
[1] Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2002), pp. 95,96. (See Part I, Chapter XIII). Note how the first paragraph links “the nature of war” with “the nature of weather”. Perhaps Putin’s invasion of Ukraine can be viewed through the lens of our looming climate crisis, as well. With respect to Putin’s deficiency in height, he is in good company: Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and, of course, Mao were all short.
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