The State of Nature
Well then, this is it!
The decider
The final showdown
[John Locke]
Locke in
[Thomas Hobbes]
I'm gonna burn you on my Thomas Hobbes
[Locke]
I'm gonna John Locke you away!
[Hobbes + Locke]
It's the state of nature, war of man on man
Been like this forever, since the world began
Enough with anarchy, it's simply wrong!
What are we to do?
[Locke]
Hobbesy, you're on
[Hobbes]
My name is Hobbes, I'm a contract theorist
Public order is what I hold dearest
In the state of nature, war is fought, yeah
Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short, yeah
You can't go on and enjoy your time
When you're living under fear of violent crime
If you don't know what thеy're doing then you need to fear thе worst
It's rational for both of you to get the other first
Even if you're friendly and you wouldn't hurt a fly
My logic is impeccable, one of you must die
[Locke]
My name is Locke, and I'm a natural rights theorist
Individual freedom's what I hold dearest
Tommy Tommy Hobbes, your story's got a hole
You gladly overlooked society's role
When you're living in the hood and you're living with the feds
There are rights and wrongs that the law dictates
Expressing all those rights, liberty and property
It's possible to trust each other not to act improperly
But if we cannot all agree on how to follow law
I agree, and we're legally to war
[Locke + Hobbes]
It's the state of nature, and it can't go on
Anarchy has run this place for far too long
We need a government, we need police
Someone to enforce the rules and bring us peace
[Hobbes]
If you wanna know what I think 'bout what's gotta be done
Total power must be given to Leviathan
Leviathan's the leader, he has absolute control
He's in charge of keeping order, that's his primary role
Power mustn't be divided between arms of state
There's just one man to execute, to judge and legislate
It don't matter if he acts a little bit despotic
It cannot be worse than a nature that's chaotic!
[Hobbes + Chorus]
It's the state of nature, war of man on man
Everybody to himself, doing whatever he can
It's the state of nature, war of all on all
Without a single sovereign, we all will fall
[Locke]
Don't you see that your solution to this violent war
Is the creation of the biggest baddest bully of them all?
If you give a man the power to do what the hell he wishes
He'll terrorize the lot of us, we're sleeping with the fishes
We were born independent, equal and free
So you can't take away our natural liberty
If a tyrant tells us what to do, expect dissent
It's illegitimate to run a state that ain't got our consent!
[Locke + Chorus]
It's the state of nature, there's a natural law
But when violations happen there's a state of war
It's the state of nature, so we must invent
A state that's built on everybody's free consent
[Simultaneous]
Hobbes + Chorus:
It's the state of nature, war of man on man
Everybody to himself, doing whatever he can
It's the state of nature, war of all on all
Without a single sovereign, we all will fall
Locke + Chorus:
It's the state of nature, there's a natural law
But when violations happen there's a state of war
It's the state of nature, so we must invent
A state that's built on everybody's free consent