Life...Poor, Nasty, Brutish, and Short

Rereading what I wrote last Wednesday about the bush wars in Africa, about children soldiers with AK-47s terrorizing their own people, I was reminded of something written by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes described what he called a "state of nature" - life in the absence of government.

This, he said, would lead to bellum omnium contra omnes. or "war of all against all." See his description from Ch. XIII of The Leviathan:

In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worse of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

That pretty well describes the situation in those African countries with bandit hordes ravaging their countrysides and people. Source of the quote is Wikipedia.