Locke And Hobbes

            What attracted me to Locke and Hobbes was the extreme contrast between the two.  When I was assigned a project as open as this, I decided to construct a mask.  I knew the dramatic difference between these two individuals would really be shown if I cut the mask in half so people could visualize their aspirations and different points of view.  On the Hobbes side, it represents what he thinks a society with no government would endure.  It shows all the chaos that would be taking place, in his mind.  On Locke's side of the mask, it represents democracy throughout many pictures being made into a collage. The pictures consist of people of all ethnicity's voting for one, stable, leader.  The decisions of this mask were based on different perspectives representing two sides of a society.

            Even today, not all countries are ran by a democracy. There are still countries led by a monarchy. For example, countries like:  North Korea, and Somalia. Being ran by a monarchy causes multiple problems.  The person in charge controls all of the money, housing, food, and people's daily lives.  This, in turn causes rebellion against the government. People become angry because they have no control over how there society is ran.  However, Hobbes point of view is much different. To him, man before government is out of control and just plain chaos. If we were living in a society without a monarchy things would be barbaric and people would do what they please, with no stable direction; according to Hobbs.  To resemble Hobbs outlook on a society like this I splattered red paint on his half of the mask. The splattered red paint will resemble blood from people fighting or just to resemble things that are going wrong. His mouth will be sewn shut and his eye closed resembling intensifying pain that would take place in a society with no government.

             A society ran by a democracy allows freedom of speech from the people.  It provides leadership. However it allows people to make their own decisions. For example, they can choose the jobs they have, their own religion, where they want to live, and how to raise their family. The people of a society ran by a democracy are not totally controlled by the government.  This is the type of living that Locke prefers. In a society ran like this he believes we all would be equal and nothing could go wrong.  He thinks life would be simple and that the people would make good decisions on what to do with their freedom. To show the way Locke feels on my mask I cut out where the eye is supposed to be and made it look like a voting slot with ballets sticking out from it.  Behind that, covering the whole face there is a collage of people voting of all ethnicity, and also words to show the equality and peacefulness that Locke thinks there will be.  

            The world will never be picture perfect.  However, in my opinion we must provide a situation that will benefit the greatest number of people with a positive outcome. It is impossible to make everyone happy but in the end we have to provide a solution that is best for our society. With saying that, I neither fully agree nor disagree with Locke or Hobbes.  There are things about both sides that I like, and also dislike.  I do not think we should be put under a monarchy. However I think a life with no government would be chaos and barbaric just as Hobbes explains.  I think being ran by a democracy is the ideal way to go, but I'm not saying it's all going to be easy; Although I do believe it would cause less problems than being ran by a king.  We need a stable leader with the people's ideas behind the leader to make final decisions. Clearly, any way you look at it there is going to be problems, we just have to find the decision that will cause less havoc.


Review Questions: 

1.If i could go back to the beginning of this project and do something differently i would have made my design quicker than i did.  Therefore i could have gotten the mask done faster and I would have more time to perfect and revise my essay. 

2.If i could give advice to another student doing a project like this i would tell them to not bite off more than they can chew. Meaning, that they should choose a project they know for a fact that they could get done in two weeks.And that if they need more time to come in on there own time so they could perfect their final project.

3. I think that a teachers opinion on my performance would be good.  I worked thoroughly and thoughtfully to create my project.I also used my time wisely to create a beautiful final project.

4. Something that I learned throughout my project on Locke and Hobbes is that people are always going to be entitled to their own opinion.  I always want to remember that as i am getting older, because i know not everyone is going to have the same opinion and it's something that has to be accepted.