Thomas Hobbes and Mexico - A Thought

What is Thomas Hobbes's notion of freedom and Mexico?


I think there is one word that helps summarize Hobbes’s perspective on freedom – paradox. This is because he saw freedom as one’s ability to exercise power (Stafford, 2010). Hobbes believed that man is “naturally, free and equal” (Stafford, 2010). Man has the right to do whatever he pleases. The paradox comes when Hobbes also notes that man’s exercising of his right to do whatever he pleases may infringe upon the ability of another man’s ability to exercise his liberty/freedoms (Nelson, 1996, 184). This, therefore, means man is always in motion and competing for power over others to protect his own self-interests- this means war/conflict (Stafford, 2010).


How is it significant to the formation of the social contract?


Another paradox comes into play with regards to Hobbes’s perspective of social contract. To protect ones freedoms, to have some semblance of security, some freedoms have to be relinquished and subordinated to a sovereign authority; the exception being the right to self-preservation (Stafford, 2010). This perspective gave justification for the existence for monarchic rule or subordination to a state. Without the state there is constant chaos as people continue to compete for power and influence to secure their own interests.


Hobbes Today


Mexico today, exemplifies both examples.  The failure of the state to maintain its part of the social contract to meet the needs and interests of its people has forced its population to “exercise power” to secure freedoms denied them by the state-namely the ability to acquire money needed to survive and take care of their families (Nelson, 1996, 187). Mexicans ally themselves with drug trafficking organizations to meet individual and group needs by securing money to survive and live life on their own terms through the trafficking of drugs (Grayson, 2010, iii-iv).


Some drug trafficking organizations like La Familia filled other voids, as warped as they are, by providing drug treatment services and or religious studies (Grayson, 2010, iii-iv). In return, those people support the cartels brutal and bloody operations against other groups competing over the same lines of communication needed to sustain operations needed to continue bringing in money and living life on their own terms (Grayson, 2010, iii-iv).






References:


Grayson, George W. 2010. 'La Familia Drug Cartel: Implications for U.S.-Mexico Security' http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?PubID=1033; accessed 24Mar11


Nelson, Brian R. 1996. Western political thought: From Socrates to the age of ideology (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.


Stafford, Adrienne. 2010. Political Theory lecture notes. Week 3: The dawn of modern political thought.