Hobbes, Locke, and "Revolution"

Who knew Locke and Hobbes were still being brought up in the 21^st century, outside of Polisci 101 I mean. While watching the new show “Revolution” on NBC I realized the two separate groups portrayed in the show follow the beliefs of both Hobbes and Locke.

For those of you who don’t know or simply don’t have time for TV, “Revolution” shows the U.S. after a mysterious power outage. Everything that ran on any form of electricity, from cell phones to computers suddenly went off and never turned back on. We meet the main characters fifteen years after the “black out,” or loss of power. The United States doesn’t exist anymore. Instead the U.S. has been broken up into multiple republics, run by absolute dictators (sound familiar yet?) The one we are most familiar with at this point in the called the Monroe Republic. Sebastian Monroe has control of the majority of all firearms, as rare as they are now, and his militia enforces anything and everything Monroe deems “necessary.” When people see the militia coming, they hide if they can or they do whatever it is they ask, because they fear the militia more than they want to protect what is theirs. (Please tell me this is starting to ring bells!)

If it hasn’t, let me lay it out for you. In Hobbes’ The Leviathan, Hobbes believes that when a government goes into effect, it is because one man gains all of the weapons and power; everyone else follows him purely out of fear. Monroe follows this definition to a T, in “Revolution.” He does not allow civilians to own firearms, giving him military superiority over the majority of the population. There is, however, a rebel group trying to fight against Monroe, which The Leviathan does not mention about government. This rebellion is trying to bring back the government of the United States of America, as opposed to the Monroe Republic. But there is also another story to this show besides the government.

The audience mostly follows the story of a young woman named Charlie as she tries to find her brother, who was taken by the militia. Their father is believed to have known how and why the black out occurred and even how to turn the “lights” back on. When the militia comes to get their father, he is accidently shot and the militia takes Charlie’s brother, Danny, instead. As Charlie intends to search for Danny by herself, but two other people from her small community choose to go with her. This is something neither of them has to do. They are not related to Danny, in no way are they responsible for him and they are not to blame for Danny being taken. Regardless, they still choose to go with Charlie, even against Charlie’s own will. (Hmmm…people working together…familiar much?) Charlie goes in search of her uncle, Miles, at her father’s suggestion and he also agrees to help her get Danny back, even though he has never met Danny or Charlie, he agrees to help them on the bases of their family ties and nothing else. Charlie is not threatening him. She is not bribing him. All she can do is ask, beg, Miles to come with her.

I will admit that this does take Locke farther than what he wrote in his Treatise. In The Second Treatise, Locke says we should be part of communities only if it does not cause harm to ourselves. In “Revolution,” it is obvious those helping Charlie are risking harm to themselves and I don’t want to spoil this series for anyone, but you do see harm come to these individuals as their quest continues.

In closing, I think it’s interesting how today in the 21^st century, when a writer decides to write about a situation that is, basically, post apocalyptic, society is thrown back into a state of nature similar to the one described by Hobbes and Locke written centuries ago. Those who were or are involved in the government, or even society in the big cities, in this state of nature support Hobbes’ idea that you cannot trust anyone. While those who have no experience with the Republic, or have stayed in more rural areas, have a more “Locketian” view of human kind being inherently good. For example Charlie regularly convinces Miles to not kill individuals working for the militia. By no means do I know if the writer was inspired or drew on the Locke’s and Hobbes’ writings, but the similarities are awesome, surprising, and worth discussing.

Feel free to watch the series and comment. Come on, there's only four episodes so far.