THOMAS HOBBES: Navigating The Leviathan!
Without civil society…humanity would fall into "War of All AGAINST All."
written by Fred Van Lente illustrated by Ryan Dunlavey
special double-sized comic - click to enlarge!
Script for Action Philosophers: Thomas Hobbes
DOUBLE-PAGE SPREAD: The cutaway of a huge, undulating sea serpent. Each segment of the serpent has a different type of person associated with, and accompanying copy.
Copy in upper left hand corner of spread, above beginning of serpent:
TITLE: THOMAS HOBBES
CAPTION: (1588-1679) was working as a TUTOR in PARIS when the ENGLISH CIVIL WAR broke out.
CAPTION: Time spent with exiled British ROYALS and their SYMPATHIZERS in France inspired Hobbes to write his landmark work of POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, Leviathan, or the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil (1650).
CAPTION: The title evokes the giant Biblical SEA MONSTER, to which Hobbes compares the STATE – a great BEAST, in essence, comprised of MEN.
Segment 1 (The Tail): [We’ll build the snake from left to right, from tail to head.] In a suburban neighborhood, two groups of 1950’s families battle each other with cutlasses and cannon – the housewives try to beat each other with rolling pins, the husbands with golf clubs, etc.
CAPTION: WITHOUT civil society, Hobbes warns, humanity would fall into “bellum omnium contra omnes” – “war of all AGAINST all.”
CAPTION: In this woeful “state of NATURE”, “every man has a right to every thing, even to one another's BODY” – which would make a man’s life “solitary, poor, nasty, BRUTISH, and SHORT.”
Segment 2: Happy-looking stereotypical king materializes between beaten-down families, holding a ragged “SOCIAL CONTRACT” labeled as such.
CAPTION: To CURTAIL perpetual violent ANARCHY, mankind has agreed to what Hobbes dubbed a “SOCIAL CONTRACT.”
CAPTION: To obtain SECURITY against constant violence to one’s PERSON, each man VOLUNTARILY gives up the immediate gratification of all his DESIRES (which, by necessity, bring him into CONFLICT and COMPETITION with OTHER men, thus SPARKING violence).
Segment 3: The Suburban King organizes a Neighborhood Watch, which is comprised of the families with “seeing eye” motifs on their fascist uniforms.
CAPTION: The reasons for the State’s EXISTENCE is to command a MONOPOLY on the just use of VIOLENCE.
CAPTION: POLICE are allowed to use violence to enforce LAWS (CONTRACTS) between CITIZENS…
CAPTION: …and when another STATE violates agreements with OUR state, the ARMY is allowed to use violence against IT!
Segment 4: Suburban families bow down before the throned-and-crowned King of the Suburbs, holding weed-whackers and golf clubs instead of swords. The king sits in a gazebo in the middle of the town square. Perhaps there’s even a sign that reads “KING OF THE SUBURBS”. He has taken the teenage daughter from Segment 1 as his concubine.
CAPTION: Each citizen says, in effect, to the SOVEREIGN:
SURBANITES (in unison): I authorize and give up my right of governing MYSELF to THIS man on the condition that my FELLOW CITIZENS give up THEIR right to him, and authorize all his actions in LIKE manner.
Segment 5: The King gives a Thumb’s Down to the development’s “July 4th” celebrations. A banner bearing the date, little American flags, and fireworks, are burned in a huge bonfire by the Neighborhood Watch fascists. Predictably, this sparks some of the fireworks to fly off into the air.
CAPTION: To the sovereign Hobbes gives nearly UNFETTERED power to maintain the peace, including superseding the COURTS, using CENSORSHIP to squash “disruptive” speech, and the sole right to name his SUCCESSOR.
CAPTION: He cannot be held accountable by his own SUBJECTS, who have no Jeffersonian “RIGHT TO REBELLION”, for overthrowing the sovereign would return men to the aforementioned really bad STATE OF NATURE.
Segment 6: The suburban development is now enclosed behind a GATE. Many of the suburbanites now cling to the insides of the bars like prisoners. Many pray to God for salvation. The sign near the gate reads “LEVIATHAN ESTATES” (A Gated Community).
CAPTION: Nevertheless, except for those constraints absolutely necessary to maintain the PEACE, the sovereign should allow for his subjects’ maximum independence, Hobbes says.
CAPTION: Unfortunately, as there is no appeal to an EARTHLY power HIGHER than the sovereign, citizens are entirely dependant on the sovereign’s own innate GOODNESS for him to adhere to this principle.
“Segment” 7: The Head of the Serpent: A group of angry KINGS and QUEENS (can we get Burger King and Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts in there?) chase poor THOMAS HOBBES out of the mouth of the snake – he’s outside the snake, they’re inside.
CAPTION: Ironically, Hobbes’ royalist buddies despised Leviathan because they thought it was excessively SECULAR. After they threatened his LIFE he had to flee to ENGLAND and petition the rebel CROMWELLIANS for SANCTUARY!
CAPTION: Fortunately for HIM, one of his former pupils became the Restoration King CHARLES II, and when the royals returned to power, Chuck Two gave Teach a stipend that allowed him to live out his days in relative COMFORT…
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