A World Gone Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes believed that “the right of each to all things” eternally ties Man to conflict, because we will always compete for what we want and need. He wrote, “The condition of man...is a condition of war of everyone against everyone” and that could not be truer today. As populations rise and resources dwindle, the need to seize what’s left grows direr by the day. There is a Great Posturing going on amongst the world’s powers. All the usual suspects are flexing their muscles:

Russia’s testing of “The Father of all Bombs”; http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1155952320070912?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Israel’s “covert” strikes whenever and wherever they choose;
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170188,00.html

North Korea’s obsession with nuclear power;
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/dprk/nuke/index.html

And what can be said about the US that hasn’t been said thousands of times (just not in the mainstream press)? Their strategies are beginning to sound like a Tom Clancy novel; http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread302187/pg1

It all smells of a worldwide conflict escalating out of control. Is it life imitating art, or vice versa, when the real world looks a lot like the ultimate game of Risk? Is it a harbinger of impending doom? Everybody is gearing up for something, but what? Is it to be the War that ends all Wars? Whatever is happening, it looks like my wish for a human free planet could be on the horizon, if there still is a horizon when this thing goes down. Maybe all those people buying fallout shelters during the Cold War weren’t crazy after all. They were just sixty years ahead of their time.