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Let's Blow This "State of Nature-iscle" Stand!

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Let's Blow This "State of Nature-iscle" Stand!

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There is this idea that is very popular with Western philosophers and it the state of nature, or rather what life would be without laws or government. John Locke did not like the idea of no government, he believed in the idea of a very minimal government. He states that people will only surrender some of their freedoms to a government so that they may protect them from an insecure and anarchic life style that the state of nature would offer. Government is only around to protect it's citizens from this, not to use it's power to corrupt and use for it's own self interests. The writers of the Constitution, our founding fathers, decided this was a useful and great idea to lay down into our system of government. In Article 4, Section 4 it clearly says that the government will protect it's citizens from insecurity and outside enemies. Because of this, our government is seen as more minimal that it is interactive and invasive to it's people. John Locke's ideal way to deal with the state of nature is pursued in all of our founding documents as a country.

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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

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This famous phrase in the Declaration of Independence (US 1776) is one of Locke's most famous ideals, well half of it anyway. Locke believed in the life and liberty part but they took out his favorite aspect of what the government should protect, property of its citizens. He believed that every citizen had the right to property but that's one of the few ideas the founding fathers didn't agree with the great John Locke on. Locke thought that slavery was wrong, so every person in the country was supposed to have right to property. However, the. founding fathers believed that slavery was needed for a country to thrive, so those certain slaves weren't allowed property. Because of this, they didn't write in the right to property. But the life and. liberty part, THAT they could agree on. John Locke said that the government should, above all, protect the life and liberty of the people since that is what their job is. In the Declaration of Independence, they almost copied it by saying "Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness", stating what their version of the what the government's initial job was.

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If you haven't heard, our country is NOT a monarchy and it is not just because of King George's actions. John Locke had stated multiple times throughout his career and his essay's his disapproval of monarchies. He says in his Second Treatise that all men are equal toward the law. This idea goes against what a monarchy is, because it will most likely becomes corrupt and the king and his family are free from the law in a monarchy. The founding fathers did not like monarchies either so they decided to create a representative democracy, rather that's the closest we can call it. So the type of government we put together was heavily influenced by John Locke's idea of how to separate powers.

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Furthermore, John Locke also disapproved of any type of religion interfering with the state. He argued that if the state let the citizens mind their own business on what religion they would choose to follow. And since the government's only job was to protect the people's life, liberty and property and to keep them from going into complete anarchy, making the church associated with the state would be an invasion of privacy. It would lead to other controlling aspects and who's to say the government wouldn't try to control something else in the citizen's lives. Our founding fathers took note of this reasoning and included it in our own Constitution. In the Bill of Rights, in the VERY first amendment, the document states that, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," (US Constitution, Amend. 1). This idea made sure there would be no absolute monarchy in our country and it was heavily motivated to be written in by John Locke.

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The Right to Usurp a Destructive Government

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The Right to Usurp a Destructive Government

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Locke clearly states in his own writing that if an abusive government is seen by the citizens, they are justified in rebelling against that government to protect their human rights. In Chapter 8 of the Second Treatise he states that all of the  government's power is granted by the citizens and if they do not keep those citizens safe, it is their duty to either rebel or secede from that government. Power is granted to the government, so it can not take that power for it's own self interest or that would be going against the very origin of the government itself. The colonies first started to live with that philosophy when they rebelled against England and wrote their own government. They weren't being treated fairly, so they made their own, better government. In the Declaration of Independence, it clearly states that, "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government". Locke's idea of a safe and just government influenced our founding fathers to do the same with their own government.

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