episode_0018

I mistakenly wrote Thomas Hobbes as John Locke in the last episode and have corrected it.

I think I was mistaken because I saw both names too much while researching….. I’m sorry…..

* * * * *

There’s something that becomes both stronger and weaker when war breaks out.

What could it be?

The answer is the authority of the leader.

The dignity, loyalty, control, etc., they have over their subjects.

The essential elements of governance.

If you ask why, it’s a simple reason.

War is an act of wasting blood and resources like water.

If you win, you’ll gain fame and power for the time being, but as sacrifices increase, you’ll gradually face blame and criticism.

‘Unless you achieve an overwhelming victory in a short-term battle, it’s even more so when it turns into a quagmire like now.’

When people die, bereaved families are created. The more bereaved families there are, the greater the resentment towards the country’s leader.

And the greater the resentment, the greater the political burden on the leader. The same goes for losing a battle or making mistakes.

What happens when the burden exceeds its limit?

The fight ends.

The reason for surrendering or attempting peace negotiations is because they can’t handle the damage.

“This war is exceptionally large. None of the participating countries have ever mobilized and operated such a huge army for a long period of time.”

“That’s right. For the past 100 years, there have only been small-scale territorial wars or local wars.”

“Perhaps the leadership of every country is feeling immense pressure. If they lose now, it’s not just losing territory, but the entire nation could disappear.”

Currently, there are four warring countries and one country planning to participate.

Including small countries with no influence on the war and countries that are still testing the waters, there are nearly a dozen countries involved in the war.

If they want to live, they must somehow squeeze their country dry and win.

Regardless of whether the people’s livelihood deteriorates, they must scrape together as many resources and manpower as possible and throw them onto the battlefield.

Nobles and royals as knights or officers, insignificant commoners as soldiers. Magicians as support units.

They wouldn’t have enough even if they gave a spear or sword to every able-bodied man with arms and legs and conscripted them.

But realistically, that was impossible.

They could ignore the complaints of the lowly people, but it was difficult to ignore the opinions of the nobles.

If they scraped everything away, the backlash would surely explode, and the monarch’s position would be threatened. They had to be mindful to some extent.

In the first place, if they didn’t receive the cooperation of the nobles, it would be difficult to conscript soldiers and secure supplies.

The local governance and administration are the responsibility of the lords, so how could the government unilaterally exploit them? All the current information and related documents are held by the other party.

Most countries are in this state, which is why the Helvetia Republic is still holding on.

There, they send administrators and local officials to each region for direct rule. The efficiency of mobilization and exploitation is different.

“So, I’m thinking of giving them a little help. To ease the burden felt by those in high places.”

But I didn’t like this situation. So, I decided to help the leaders of each country.

So that they could more easily gather resources and mobilize the country’s capabilities to wage war.

Even though the technology is rudimentary and the industry is primitive, to scrape together even those meager capabilities and smash them into each other, wasting them indefinitely.

“The intention seems good, but how? Even if you tell the pompous upper class to sacrifice for the country, they’ll just laugh.”

“I’m not planning to target them. It’s enough to support only the top dogs.”

“Ah, are you going to write again and provide political ideas this time? Like when you published The Prince?”

“That’s right. You’ve become more perceptive since we’ve been working together for so long.”

I happened to have an ideology in my head that was suitable for enlightening national leaders.

That is Thomas Hobbes’ social contract theory.

It has the same name as Rousseau’s, but it’s a different argument.

While Rousseau advocated republicanism, liberty, equality, and fraternity, this one conversely advocates for a strong monarchy.

It considers an absolute monarchy ruled by a monarch to be a more desirable system than a republic or democracy.

The core is the same: that a large group called the state is established through a social contract and its members must obey it.

But the perspective on the ideal society is reversed.

There couldn’t be a more suitable argument for suppressing the backlash of the lower classes and allowing the leader to wield power.

“Then are you going to start writing right away? You won’t have much time to teach the students.”

“I can work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, Friday. If I work hard, it’ll probably be done in about 3 weeks.”

* * * * *

From that day on, I started working day and night. Or rather, should I call it teaching during the day and writing at night?

“Okay, this formula will be on the midterm, so everyone take notes and remember how to use it. Here, the limit of the sum of a series from 1 to infinity is like this, and if you express it using Stieltjes integral–”

“Instructor, you’re going too fast!!”

“We only learned integrals two days ago!!”

“If you don’t know this, you can’t do accounting, so memorize it even if it’s difficult. If you don’t like it, solve the problem I gave you on the first day.”

Anyway, I tortured the brains of the little ones during the day, and at night I sat at my desk and wrote the manuscript.

It wasn’t too difficult this time either. The basic content, outline, and ideas were all in my head.

With Kalia helping me from the side and working in a comfortable environment, sentences came out quickly.

“Let’s see, I should base it on Leviathan… Should I adapt the religious parts?”

I based it on Leviathan, the most famous of Hobbes’ books. Because all of his ideological foundations are contained here.

[The original and fundamental state of humanity is a war of all against all. All mankind has an inherent desire for power that ceases only in death, endless and unceasing.

Therefore, in the primitive state, the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Humans inevitably become unhappy in a situation where there is no common power that threatens them all.]

[Humans are inherently selfish and move according to the desire for self-preservation. However, they also have a fear of the disorder and violence that arise from this, so they seek laws and power to escape from fear and anxiety.]

There was no need to use exaggeration or overly radical expressions. The original author himself hated disorder and the instability of the system.

It was enough to simply make appropriate linguistic adaptations, change religious expressions, and add my own opinions to induce the reactions I needed.

[Thus, the embodiment of the powerful force to realize this selfish nature of human beings is what we call the state. The strong desire for the peace of all forms a community, and further, builds the authority of the ruler.

Therefore, the power of the monarch can be defined as the authority transferred according to the contract of the people who make up the society.]

[The people entrust all rights to the ruler except for the right to their own lives, that is, natural rights, and obey him.

This is as if all people have declared to all others: ‘I approve of completely transferring the right to govern myself to that person, provided that others transfer their rights like me.’]

It criticizes the decentralization of power. It praises the benefits of giving everything to a single person who will be the order and center.

It emphasized the problems when political power is divided and described its evils in detail.

That it deviates from the essence and purpose of the social contract, which is peace and security. I chose expressions that made only absolute power feel like the answer.

[The power thus created is like an uncontrolled and violent monster, that is, Leviathan. But this monster, paradoxically, becomes the only order that must exist in infinite chaos and disorder.

By uniting and unifying a multitude of people into one personality, under the blessing of the eternal goddess, a great god on earth is born who provides peace and defense to mankind.]

[The people escape from fear by completely entrusting the right to govern themselves to the monster. And the power of the monster thus created is not something that can be separated or divided, but is absolute right itself.]

However, I excluded the description of the Kingdom of Christ that Hobbes spoke of. Because this is a world without Jesus.

I also deleted the part that incompetent leaders who cannot protect the people should be replaced.

Praising the absolute power and sanctity of the monarchy, how could such ominous content be included?

Hobbes wrote such things because he wanted to spread his thoughts and beliefs, but my purpose is only propaganda.

I cut out all the content that the powerful would not like. No matter what evaluation I receive later, it’s enough if it’s persuasive for now.

“I think this is okay to some extent. Miss Kalia, I’ll leave the printing and distribution to you.”

“Leave it to me.”

I entrusted the rest of the work to Kalia and enjoyed a relaxing time for a while. Wondering what kind of reaction the readers would give me.

But the world is a strange thing.

My new work ended up causing an unimaginable change.

“Duce?”

“Yes. The leader of Helvetia has changed to that title.”

Why is the bald head hanging on the gas station here…?