Week 6 - Lecture Notes on Media Theory

ecture 6 : Power

•
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)


He Br!t!sh ph!losopher
•

was a conservat!ve



The bas!e start!ng of h!s ph!losophy that the human
•

!s
po!nt
Cond!t!on !s a!med at self -



preservat!on and the act of Cont!nu!ng
to l!ve .




•
Because there are Other
people around you Who also want to

self -



preserve ,
the State of nature natural State of human be!ngs
"
of all In Order th!s
"
!s the AII to descr!be he
!n War
aga!nst .
,



the hat!n phrase hom!n!
" " "
uses homo lupus : men are Wolf to
"
Other men



>
people are str!v!ng to self -

preserve and because Weak do that

we become Wolves to each Other and spread danger to each Other
th!s !s Where h!s !dea of "
C!v!l Soc!ety or sovere!gn!ty Comes !n
" " "




and
argues that because we want to Undo th!s s!tuat!on of nature ,



we have created
"

Soc!ety
"
and !n
Soc!ety What we do !s to all

to be attack!ng each Other and follow the Collect!ve
agree on not

laws!we Make Soc!al th!s Hobbes
Contract
Why
>
as !t were a .
!s

!s cons!dered to be one of the f!rst ph!losophers Who has a Soc!al

Contract theory .




•
Soc!al Contract : !nd!v!duals g!ve up freedon for secur!ty so they
can thr!ve .
( not : thr!ve :
gel!şmek )

,•
Hobbes also adds that th!s
happens through an Inst!tut!on Called
" " " "
the Sovere!gn or the State as
guarantor of Soc!al
peace .




•
In h!s book ,
Hobbes descr!bes the Sovere!gn w!th those words :




"
that
great lev!athan Called a Commonwealth or State ,
wh!ch

but art!f!c!al ( alt !nd!v!dual
!s an man
put together through
people l!ke a Collect!ve ) , though of greater Statue and strength
!nd!v!dual human for whose
than the natural ( than the
be!ngs ) ,

"

protect!on and defence !t was !ntended


>
SO the Sovere!gn !s someth!ng that protect Us but at the

same t!me we have to subm!t to !t and we do that because

wewant to
Keep surv!v!ng and prevent the War of all aga!nst ah .




Th!s !dea of of all and
• "
war
aga!nst all
"
!s a
very Common
pervas!ve
!dea .
We can See th!s !dea that !f Soc!ety d!sassembled from

Order , peace and Secur!ty ; we w!lt have the not!on of War of each

aga!nst all !n
many Med!c! phenomenon :




>
The Dead : b!ggest danger does from
Walk!ng not Come

Zomb!es but Comes from Other human be!ngs > th!s !s a Class!c

Hobbs!an problem at!c : When C!v!l!zat!on breaks down ,
we are !n

of each all
a War
aga!nst .




>
Prepper subculture :
prepar!ng for the moment When Soc!ety
breaks down those people prepare bags to Surv!ve for 72

hours ,
wh!ch are f!lled w!th AII the necessary th!ngs .

, >
there were many queues !n 2020 at the very beg!nn!ng
of the Corona ep!dem!c : the t!!st react!on was to buy guns
be essent!al
s!nce
people thought that !t would !n
protect!ng
themselves dur!ng the breakdown of the Soc!ety .




•
Th!s !dea of Hobbes has been reart!culated several t!mes !n


Ph!losophy Through h!story :




"
>
Carl Schm!dt :
Sovere!gn !s he who dec!des on the
"

except!on .
( the except!on Means : When you stop apply!ng the

normal rules ) .




>
example : French pres!dent Macron announc!ng the

fact that !t was no
longer poss!ble to cross the

border !n 2020 .
th!s Stopped the normal affa!r and !t

was the Sovere!gn who dec!ded on th!s and establ!shed
the except!on .




G!org!o Agamben
>
of
: a
permanent State
except!on

>
example : US !s supposed to be a Const!tut!onal

democracy Where you have habeas corpus Where you
cannot
just lock Somebody Up w!thout accus!ng them

for a Certa!n t!me .
however ,
What happened w!th

Guantanamo Bay was that
they Str!pped a lot of

people there to have them Outs!de of th!s habeas

Outs!de of the normal Order and they
corpus SO
-




establ!shed the!r
permanent state of
except!on .