AFGHANISTAN AND HOBBES
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The hope of the world is that, somehow, as soon as possible, Afghanistan can find a way toward peace and stability, if not prosperity. The problem, of course, is the diversity of ethnic and religious segments of the population, not all of them inclined to accept help from the Western nations, or even an outsider lime the United Nations. Perhaps the writings of a man who lived some four hundred years ago, Thomas Hobbes might lead the way, especially since his theories of a government not only serving the people well, but one to which the people gave some of their rights so that majority and minority can live in harmony. He proposed a social contract whereby the governed select those they consider best able to rule. Hobbes lived in a time not unlike Afghanistan today- in a world torn by religious and territorial strife, by monarchies and papacies that found antagonism whenever they attempted to exert power. And yet, it is power which makes Hobbes relevant to today's situation and potential solution in Afghanistan. At the beginning of Chapter X of "The Leviathan, Hobbes states that "the power of a man, to take it universally, is his present means to obtain some future apparent good, and is either original or instrumental." So, he lays out the task to end civil strife in today's Afghanistan by suggesting that we (the rest of the civilized world) find someone to accept the power- the power to do good, to unite the people, to have them accept him-
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and that is absolute in terms of integrity and service to the people. It is natural, Hobbes hints, for man to distrust another man, unless he has been given the right, or the popular approval for power. Given such sovereignty with a social contract on which the rules and the ruled can agree, here is the beginning of progress that can be made: namely to develop and maintain a popular super-structure which can hold, regardless of the disparity of ethnic and religious and tribal entities within Afghanistan. Hobbes has opened a door. The UN and the Afghan people now have to open it wider and achieve a balance and a stability that ends Afghanistan's civil strife.
IS ATHENS A PRECURSOR FOR THE U.S. today?
Acceptable or not, a number of classmates discussed the speeches of Pericles and Cleon. We came to a consensus that perhaps there is a similarity to the views and demeanor and attitude of Americans before, and then after, the tragedies of September 11. While some of us may or may not use this idea in this short essay, it would certainly be worth discussing in class: Namely, if we see Athens as the birth and cradle of Western Civilization, and we have considered the U.S. to be the apex, have we now lost that
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1374
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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