The Politics of Fear

I posted the other day about an essay I had to write which looked at Petr Kropotkin's Mutual Aid and it's criticism of Hobbes in De Cive and Leviathan. At the time I thought that I would find myself supporting the anarcho-communist Kropotkin but much to my surprise my research and writing led me to the opposite conclusion. I developed an understanding of how under the anarchic systems he describes the individual lives in a state of perpetual fear whereas Hobbes 'Commonwealth' brings organisation to chaos and renders fear less omnipotent. Very interesting indeed. The essay I wrote was not especially good, but I think it changed my outlook on some important things.

Posted by Paul in Political Theory Politics at February 3, 2005 07:05 PM | 2 Comments