Face

The way we think about global politics is largely conditioned by the idea that one of the most important questions – maybe the most important question – is: “How can we best live together?” If the world is made up of people of different backgrounds and divergent interests living alongside each other, how can we find a way of living together harmoniously and without conflict? How can we overcome what divides us? However, this question rests on an unspoken assumption: that we are separate individuals that come into the world as distinct beings, each independent from the other, who only learn to live together later. It is through this learning process that we overcome our inherent selfishness and egoism and become civilised, able to live and work together. Our learned ability to do this distinguishes us from the criminal, the primitive and the savage, who remain in a so-called state of nature, where life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (Hobbes 2008: 84).