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November 30, 2023

The 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes memorably, and quite dramatically, broke from the political-moral tradition of his ancient Greco-Roman and medieval Christian predecessors when he insisted that there was no ultimate good, like the “happiness” or “flourishing” of citizens, that the political institutions of societies exist to serve. Rather, there is a greatest evil: a violent death.

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And politics are meant to mitigate the fear and likelihood of that.

Anyone can kill anyone, Hobbes insisted, for the physical and mental differences between human beings are not sufficiently substantial to immunize the strongest and smartest against the predatory designs of the weakest and stupidest.

Regarding physical prowess, “the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination, or by confederacy with others, that are in the same danger with himself.” As for mental powers, there is even greater parity among people, “for prudence, is but experience; which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.”

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One needn’t be a full-throated Hobbesian (I’m not) in order to appreciate the profundity of Hobbes’ insight. 

On November 7, Stairway Press released, The Warrior-Scholar Ideal Revisited: New Essays on an Old Vision.

I am one of its two co-authors, the other being retired USMC Lieutenant-Colonel Al Ridenhour, the founder of Warrior Flow Combatives, a system of self-defense, close quarters combat, in which I am one of his Senior-Instructors.   

The essays in WSIR are intended to supply readers with a vision, an ethical vision that, as such, is designed to promote self-empowerment through self-transformation. For this reason, we deliberately avoided expressing partisan positions on topical political issues, for it is not, in the last analysis, a political book at all. This, though, doesn’t mean that from these essays there aren’t long-term implications, however oblique, for our politics. After all, politics are always the politics of a people. Thus, if people transform by way of adopting a new vision, so too will their politics eventually transform.

We contend that despite the conventional fare of moralistic rhetoric to which Americans have grown accustomed, fear is a dominant force driving our politics.

It’s not just that the fortunes of politicians and their counterparts in corporate media are predicated upon tireless fear-mongering. From “mostly peaceful protests” of one sort or another to promises of riots to “Cancel Culture,” the threat of violence, whether it’s overt or covert, is always present.