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The Second Treatise Of Civil Government 1690

The Second Treatise of Civil Government 1690

Please consider the following quote and place your thoughts about it within your reply:

"That the aggressor, who puts himself into the state of war with another, and unjustly invades another man's right, can, by such an unjust war, never come to have a right over the conquered, will be easily agreed by all men, who will not think that robbers and pirates hhave a right of empire over whomsoever they have force enough to master, or that men are bound by promises which unlawful force extorts from them.

Should a robber break into my house, and, with a dagger at my throat, make me seal deeds to convey my estate to him, would this give him any title? Just such a title by his sword has an unjust conqueror who forces me into submission. The injury and the crime is equal, whether committed by the wearer of a crown or some petty villain.

The title of the offender and the number of his followers make no difference in the offence, unless it be to aggravate it. The only difference is, great robbers punish little ones to keep them in their obedience; but the great ones are rewarded with laurels and triumphs, because they are too big for the weak hands of justice in this world, and have the power in their own possession which should punish offenders."
-- John Locke - 1632-1704 Source 9

Government Civil Treatise The

Brandon,

It's been a long time since I have read Locke, but that passage struck me as a perfect description of the manner in which Europeans took control of the Americas, don't you think? However, the conquerors would not have seen themselves in Locke's passage, and it took generations for our historians to be more honest about the methods our ancestors used in settling the "New World." Those of us who are middle-aged were taught as children about the glorious "Manifest Destiny" which justified our settlement and expansion in America and I had absolutely no concept of the vast brutalities that routinely took place.

Still, what happened was almost universal whenever a more technologically advanced society came into contact with more primitive cultures. Do you think we would do better now if we were able to travel to a another planet with less-advanced cultures? What about Hawkins' suggestion that contact with an advanced alien culture might prove as disastrous to us as European contact was to native peoples in the Americas?

The Second Treatise Of Civil Government 1690 History & Civil Business Politics

Name: Warmonger
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Comments: Civility is based on the stronger survives. It is this way because there is always someone out there trying to pull you down and they're not civil. Let's take terrorists for example. They do what they do because they can. You think they think about being civil? What happens if you try to be civil with them? They just bomb your buildings and planes.