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Writerhof
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6
Homo homini lupus
Friday eight o'clock in the morning, political science exercise. On the grey autumn morning I have thrown on my old leather jacket, leave the house unmotivated and make my way by tram to an old prefabricated university building that will soon be demolished anyway. The room isn't too crowded, Friday mornings aren't exactly the most popular time to schedule your university events.
For the first time, I read from Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. It won't be the last. The English philosopher of the state had made few friends in his day. In the state of nature, he saw man as a "wolf" to his fellow species, caught in a war of all against all. The only way out, therefore, was to transfer his natural rights to a sovereign who had a monopoly on the use of force and put an end to this state of war. Even though Hobbes may be considered one of the main theorists of absolutism, he stepped on the toes of monarchists and liberals alike. The latter quite obviously because they wanted defensive rights against a too omnipotent state. The former precisely because Hobbes left it open who should hold the monopoly on the use of force - it could be a king just as much as any other autocrat.
Back from the 17th century to 21st century East Germany, the smell of black, sweetened coffee wafts through the room. You need something to keep you awake at such an un(i)time, or to eradicate the next day's beer too much. Slowly the coffee grows colder, but still everyone clings to their mugs - filled with coffee that has grown cold, growing ever more bitter and smoky.
One only slightly notices the exhalations of the wooden furniture in the seminar room. Too long does the old GDR furniture now its service and is sat down, but nevertheless with it unexpectedly cosy.
Now absolutist systems are not the "hot shit" in either practical politics or political science these days. Nevertheless, Hobbes has not lost his relevance. His description of the war of all against all is still one of the dominant descriptions of the state of affairs between states, between which, after all, there is no central power that could effectively exercise a monopoly of power. Influenced by this is the thoroughly pessimistic theory of neorealism, which describes relations between states primarily in categories of power and military force.
"Power," however, is what most of the participants probably thought towards the end of the seminar on Friday morning: "Finally, let's call it a day!" By ten, everyone is free to be released outside, into the war of all against all. Snarling (or may it be yawning), everyone moves towards the tram stop and then back home to get ready for the weekend. It's only there, at home, that the musky notes of "Leviathan" are likely to come through. But most of the people in the club will probably not have put on this scent, as I remember the scent preferences of the late noughties. However, in the dim, alternative study pub where an unknown band is playing way too loudly, this heavy scent could definitely work its charm. The melange of overflowing spicy coffee, with some leather and some woody notes, exudes a certain warmth that you could find in such a packed pub. It definitely makes an interesting counterpoint to the patchouli you'll smell there more often - not in the sense of a contrast, but rather as a complement to it.
