Hobnobbing About Hobbes

Haven't really had my mind on blogging the last couple of weeks.  My thinking has been otherwise engaged in the intricacies of thinking through philosophy and ethics, and trying to understand Hobbes and the idea of the social contract.

So far it seems I have the gist of it by saying Hobbes sees humanity as existing in a state of nature, or lawlessness for the most part, and that where there is lawlessness there is no violation of a moral code.  When people band together and form governments to regulate their affairs and legislate morality, then the people in that society are bound by that social contract they have set upon themselves and they are moral primarily out of the fear of punishment, and they are altruistic because it gains them something, even if it is only the warm inner glow of satisfaction that comes from performing a good deed.  His idea seems to be that humans are incapable of being moral or altruistic without a carrot and a stick to encourage these behaviours.

To me this is a cynical view of human nature, written at the time of the English Civil War, and it perhaps reflected the anarchy of those times with its emphasis on a strong leadership.  It is however the wellspring of much social contract theory.

So why do I dislike it?  As this is a blog and not an essay I can offer a personal opinion here.  I think in taking a view that humanity is incapable of rising up without authoritarian leadership to make laws and keep us in line.  It also takes the view that we do nothing for purely altruistic and selfless means.  If this is so we have to wonder about all the people who have given their lives in the service of humanity, what exactly they gained out of it.  I also think that it says we are incapable of making ourselves better for unselfish reasons, and that we always either need the carrot or the stick to motivate us.  Does this lead to a thought process where if we are incapable of being better people then we should not try that hard and just do the bare minimum to stay out of trouble and devote all our efforts to a selfish pursuit of happiness and feathering our own nests?

I think instead we should strive instead to heal our world by being more spiritual, less selfish, and more aware of how our actions affect those around us, and most importantly, taking responsibility for ourselves and not waiting for the government, or god, or blind fate to come and fix our lives, but instead to start that journey for ourselves.