Thursday, April 06, 2006

Liberty and love are perspectives...not words

I just got back from the movie V for Vendetta for my second time. This movie is so rich. It is like watching Milton and Hobbes go at it in a boxing ring...and of course...Milton wins..Love prevails. Any Hobbesian follower beg to differ? V the main character makes the claim that "Justice, Liberty and Love are not just words but they are perspectives."
Responding to the previous post; Hobbes is not for democratic rule. By definition democracies must respect individual freedoms and these freedoms can only be practiced when citizen's are informed, engaged and involved. Hobbes whole Leviathan is succsessful only when citizens are disillusioned, and isolated to their thoughts. It is through the gathering of collective conscious thought that societies (multitudes of people) are connected and embodied. Why is it possible that a dictator can be overthrown? Because he is just one man...he stands alone without his consensus. And this is what happened to the Chancelor, Hitler and the great OZ.
Hobbes would not believe in a public sphere where citizens could get together and debate about policy. Democracy works best when there are not significant differences in economic wealth and property ownership, when there is a sense of community and lastly, when there is a workable and sufficient system of communication. How would Hobbess "Dog eat Dog" mentality jive with that? The success of democratic revolutions in the 18th and 19th century was because of the emergence for the first time in human histoory of the public sphere. With all the new CMNS technology there is out there to connect us to one another, I think that we should be concerned about the small number of commercial giants that control our media systems.. Is our democracy turning into a Leviathan?...

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