Liberalism:The The "state of nature" described by Thomas Hobbes

Essay by manu16mCollege, UndergraduateA, April 2004

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The "state of nature" described by Thomas Hobbes as per which there is complete freedom and there is no authority over you is a theoretical one and is not possible in the true world. But what approximates this situation in the world is a country like India.

In India even though there is a governing body, there is police, there is military there is no true enforcement of laws. In India money speaks louder than anything else it doesn't matter if you ran a few people over while driving your new BMW at 90 miles an hour as long as your dad has loads of money. People don't pay taxes, but what they do instead is pay $200 to a person in the income tax office and enjoy living tax free for a year. So even though there are tax laws and people are taxed they getaway without paying any.

As per the " state of nature" we are all free to do anything we want to this is only possible when we are living a independent life in nature not dependant on anyone, the moment we are interlinked by work we can not follow the " state of nature" . India is slightly different than the "state of nature" because for some things like killing a person on the street ...... you can get away with it if you have money but its still a time consuming hassle and if you don't have $20000 to save your life then you hang so there is some kind of power over you, if it was the "state of nature" then it shouldn't bother anyone if I go and rob a bank