News FeedInfluences of John Locke and Thomas Hobbs on Prison Reform
I’ve heard a couple of poignant political explanations since my imprisonment began, in 1987. A Democrat, I’ve been told, was simply a Republican who had been arrested. A Republican, on the other hand, was simply a Democrat who had been mugged. Such descriptions simplified political parties, of course, mistakenly reducing their total platform positions to policies concerning the criminal justice system.
Certainly, I recognize that multiple issues influence the thoughts behind the political parties to which most Americans subscribe. During the 21 years that I’ve been locked inside various federal prisons, I’ve followed politics with great interest. Primary concerns among voters have included candidate positions on foreign policies, economic policies, and social issues. Democrats have been said to embrace liberal or progressive perspectives on such issues. Republicans, on the other hand, have always proudly touted their conservative righteousness.
When I began serving my sentence I was 23-years-old. I had been living a life in pursuit of short-term pleasures and immediate gratifications. Having been a mediocre student and indifferent to the importance of education after receiving my diploma from Shorecrest High School, in 1982, I didn’t know the distinctions between a conservative and a liberal. Those were the days before talk radio inundated us with platitudes and clichés about what it meant to be a liberal or a conservative.
During my confinement, however, I’ve had time to read and study in methodical ways. That work has broadened my understanding of political concepts. Through reading, I have immunized myself from the pernicious influences of divisive rhetoric I hear from airwave propagandists; though I do appreciate their entertainment value. Through readings that exposed me to the 17th-century thoughts of John Locke, I learned more about what liberals believed. By reading the work of Thomas Hobbs, on the other hand, I learned more about the roots of conservatism.
Thomas Hobbs believed that the fear of consequences represented the driving force behind all human motivations. Through his writing, Hobbs expressed that man was by nature an inherently evil beast. As such, he and other conservatives felt convinced that civilized society could only exist through a strict body of rules and laws that would keep man in check. Violations of those established principles would bring unfaltering consequences that society had to impose in order to uphold the rigid values of conservatism. Else we would have anarchy.
John Locke had a more fluid belief about mankind and human motivations. As the father of political liberalism, John Locke wrote that we all came into the world with a tabula rasa, or blank slate. Locke meant that we were not inherently selfish and in constant pursuit of our own interests, as Hobbs suggested. Neither were we as humans naturally good. Rather, according to Locke, every exposure or experience we encountered from the time we emerged from the womb made an impression on the blank slate of our minds. The gestalt, or the whole of our experiences, influenced our evolution as human beings.
Essentially, conservatives believe in maintaining the status quo. They feel that the preservation of society requires strict rules and customs that should not be challenged. Any individual, supposedly, can advance by adhering to the rules of society. Yet when individuals or events violate those rules, consequences follow. Liberals, in contrast, believe that society itself influences the behavior of mankind. If an individual thrives and prospers, liberals believe that the whole of society contributed in some way to that success. Likewise, if an individual falters, society as a whole shares in some of the blame. An enlightened society has an inherent interest in shaping mankind for the advancement of all.
Naturally, as a man who has served his entire adult life in federal prison, I’ve grown frustrated by the rigidity of conservative rule. Had I not been locked in cages since 1987, perhaps I would see the world differently, but my experiences have attracted me more to the work of Locke than of Hobbs.
I remain convinced that every citizen has a duty, an obligation, to work as hard as possible to contribute to the advancement of our society. Likewise, I also believe that society has a duty, an obligation, to recognize the contributions each individual makes to the whole.
I am hopeful that with the new liberal leadership American voters have elected, legislation will come that includes prison reform. That reform should be consistent with the liberal principle that all people have a capacity to change. Society must use a combination of both punishments for bad behavior, and incentives for good behavior. Leadership uses carrots and sticks with foreign policies; leadership uses the same strategy with economic policies. We need prison reforms that will offer more carrots, and less emphasis on the stick. In my article entitled Facing Long-term Incarceration,which I wrote much earlier in my term, I describe more of the readings that shaped my evolution of thought.
