Al-Q Honcho Hit

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Jks:
> No doubt. But the behavior of people in world without
> rules tells you very little about their behavior in a
> world with rules. This was the point of Rousseau's
> critique of Hobbes (as he took Hobbes to be); I think
> it was also Hobbes' point. We are not REALLY rabid
> dogs in a cage merely because without our "cage" we'd
> behave like rabid dogs. You might as well point to our
> normal boring civilized behavior in bourgeois society
> and say that is the way we REALLY are, but in the
> unnatural environment of a world without rules. jks
>

I do not think its reasonable to assume that being like rabid dogs is an
actual physical state of human existence.  It is more of a heuristic
device to describe what can happen without institutionalized rules.  If
you want a more realistic description of what can happen - it is
unlikely that lfiting the rules would automatically result in people
running like mad dogs.  More likely they would engage in interactions
prety much the same way they did before.  However, without rules, thatg
interaction would quickly degenerate into a conflict.  And when these
conflicts would escalete, someone would step in and establish some rules
which others would gladly accept to avoid future conflicts.

Wojtek