"Humane society, cohabitation or being...above all earthly things must be maintained." Richard Overton
Throughout the text, Macpherson singles out two dimensions of a well-formed society, both prerequisites of a viable political community, both culminating for him and for Hobbes in the institution of the state: (I) social cohesion; and (II), a common enough recognition of a fundamental equality spanning over the entire commonwealth so as to include each and every one. Both are deemed necessary ingredients of that quality of mind and spirit we call loyalty, a sentiment which typically expresses itself in a political obligation of sorts, an obligation to the sovereign, the state, whatever the sovereign’s form; an obligation, besides, which must be shared by all, if not most, of the citizens in order to sustain the state as a viable political entity it was designed to be, an entity one could believe in. Each, if found wanting, spells out a potential disaster, the state’s fall from grace. This much, I’m certain, is on the right track; I find no fault whatever here with Macpherson’s reasoning.…
Article comments
26 - Cindy
Glenn,
Sorry about your mom.
27 - Cindy
Roger,
I understand exactly what you mean about neurons firing. I always experienced depression when I would try to quit smoking. When I did finally quit, I found it extraordinarily helpful to place myself (and hubby, we quit together) in completely new, relaxing, and pampering circumstances. It worked very well for both of us.
28 - Cindy
Roger,
That is interesting, your idea of the medical profession as a model. I would have to have more detail to understand it better.
Can you elaborate on the role of education? I am fairly suspicious of the generalized term 'education'. I find that its largest role in our culture is as a tool of indoctrination.
29 - Glenn Contrarian
Thanks, Cindy. I figure she would have appreciated it if I used her experience as a lesson to others.
30 - roger nowosielski
@28
It's like this, Cindy. The medical profession is a model because of the necessary dedication involved, especially when it comes to life-threatening situations. It's therefore a prime example of co-operative human activity and form of organization which overrides or, shall we say? functions in spite of the top-down organizational chart which may be said to circumscribe the day in, day out work that goes on in the emergency wards and the like. In fact, we can easily imagine that work going on uninterrupted, even if we were to remove the doctors, the administrators, all the higher-echelon people, without so much as a wrinkle.
31 - Cindy
Interesting idea. I will have to think about that in terms of an analogy to other relationships.
32 - Cindy
You know, organized work relationships.
Reminds me of M.A.S.H.
33 - Cindy
You may appreciate Michael Parenti on Human Nature and Politics, Roger. He packs a whole lot into just the first 13 minute segment. Plato, Aristotle, etc. He nails down the way that the idea of human nature is used politically. The 1st of five videos.
34 - troll
Sorry to read of your setback Roger