Hobbes’ Leviathan, Contemporary Global Society, and a Possible Outcome of the United States of America’s 2016 Presidential Election

Abstract

This paper takes a comparative analysis of the circumstances of men in a “stateless” society which Thomas Hobbes calls a “state of nature” in his book Leviathan and the prevailing global security challenges facing mankind. In both circumstances, the essay notes, the “human condition” of mankind is the same:  life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. Just as Hobbes draws the conclusion from this state of affairs to the inescapable need for a “strongman”, a powerful and frightening body, a State or Leviathan, to overawe and subdue the belligerent urge of men in order to establish a peaceful and ordered society, so does this paper see that factor as not only responsible for the success of Donald Trump’s United States of America Presidential campaign so far but may also eventually determine the outcome of the United States Presidential election in November 2016.

Keywords: Human condition, state of nature, strongman, contemporary global society