The New Leviathans

1. The Return of Leviathan States

Today, states have cast off many of the restraints of the liberal era. From being an institution that claimed to extend freedom, the state is becoming one that protects human beings from danger. Instead of a safeguard against tyranny, it offers shelter from chaos.

Modern states are transforming into powerful entities, far exceeding Thomas Hobbes's original concept of the Leviathan. Unlike Hobbes's limited sovereign, whose primary role was to prevent a "war of all against all," these new Leviathans aim to engineer souls and secure meaning for their subjects. This shift is evident in the rise of new dictatorships in Russia and China, where traditional liberal restraints have been shed, and the state intervenes in society to an unprecedented degree since World War II.

These emerging states, while promising safety, paradoxically foster insecurity by weaponizing essential resources like food and energy, as seen in Russia's actions. China's surveillance regime, exported globally, threatens Western freedoms, while within Western societies, rival identity groups engage in a "war of all against all" for state power. This struggle extends to controlling thought and language, leading to widespread repression enforced by civil society and tech corporations, effectively ending a liberal civilization based on tolerance.

The apparent triumph of liberalism after the Cold War was a delusion, masking the beginning of its end. Events like the global pandemic, climate change, and war in Europe have accelerated these transformations, revealing that the spread of markets did not automatically lead to freedom. Instead, the world is witnessing the resurgence of state-controlled capitalism, where market forces serve governmental objectives, and wealth is concentrated in small, politically leveraged groups, challenging the notion of a universal liberal evolution.

2. Liberalism's Self-Refutation

Each of these ideas is a half-truth.

Liberalism's core tenets, once considered universal and foundational, are now revealed as partial truths that ultimately contributed to its demise. John Gray defines classical liberalism by four ideas: individualism, egalitarianism, universalism, and meliorism. While these concepts shaped centuries of political thought, their inherent limitations and contradictions have become apparent in the 21st century.

Individualism, asserting the moral primacy of the individual, overlooks other fundamental human needs beyond self-preservation, such as the desire to defend a perceived superior way of life, even at the cost of peace. Egalitarianism, which posits equal moral status for all, fails to account for humanity's willingness to sacrifice security for specific values. Universalism, affirming the moral unity of the species, often ignores the profound significance of diverse cultural identities.

Meliorism, the belief in the indefinite improvability of social institutions, is undermined by the reality that progress is never guaranteed and can always be lost. Hobbes, despite being a foundational liberal thinker, also recognized the "privilege of absurdity" in human language, where words can possess individuals and lead to self-deception. This deeper understanding of human nature helps explain why the liberal experiment, built on these half-truths, has reached its end.

3. The Peril of Absurdity and Language

For words are wise men’s counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor whatsoever, if but a man.

Humanity's unique capacity for language, while god-like in its creative power, also instills an abiding anxiety and a propensity for absurdity. Hobbes identified seven ways humans fall into absurd conclusions, primarily by confusing words with things and mistaking abstract ideas for independently existing realities. This leads to a dangerous detachment from concrete reality, where concepts like "Humanity" become reified actors rather than mere abstractions.

The "privilege of absurdity" allows humans to construct meaning through nonsense, exemplified by the modern concept of "humanity" as a singular, acting agent. This category mistake, as Hobbes and Spinoza noted, is perilous: when some individuals are deemed "less human," it paves the way for their elimination. The historical record shows that the invocation of "Humanity" often precedes mass killings, highlighting the destructive potential of such abstract fictions.

Hobbes's rationalist hope that clear definitions could free humankind from the spell of language proved misguided. Instead, humans often use words as "money of fools," valuing them by authority rather than meaning, leading to disputes and conflict. This linguistic possession contributes to the artificial states of nature, where an "unrelenting struggle for the control of thought and language" becomes a central feature, further eroding liberal civilization.

4. Artificial States of Nature and Totalitarianism

Hobbes thought of Leviathan as an ‘artificial animal’ that human beings create to escape the state of nature. He did not anticipate that, through their attempts to remodel humanity, totalitarian regimes would create artificial states of nature.

Totalitarian regimes, in their ambition to remodel humanity, inadvertently create artificial states of nature far more insidious than the chaos Hobbes envisioned. The Soviet system, for instance, fostered a chronic state of extremity where constant fear of denunciation led to profound mistrust among individuals, even within families. This experiment produced "Homo Sovieticus," a species of Hobbesian solitaries, isolated and preying on one another for survival.

The Leningrad siege vividly illustrates this artificial state of nature, where extreme scarcity, cannibalism, and the systematic dehumanization of citizens became commonplace. Survivors were transformed, becoming "strangers to themselves," their bodies and minds warped by starvation. This period revealed how power and survival were inextricably linked, with party elites enjoying abundance while millions perished from "dystrophia," highlighting the brutal stratification within the supposedly egalitarian system.

The Great Terror further exemplified this destructive ambition, liquidating not only opponents but also much of the new ruling class, demonstrating a "death without fanfare" for those who had barely begun to enjoy their privileges. Figures like Daniil Kharms, who sought playful freedom through absurdism, were ultimately consumed by the regime's violence, dying in prison. These historical examples underscore how attempts to engineer a new humanity often result in the systematic destruction of existing social bonds and the creation of a pervasive, state-imposed insecurity.

5. Hyper-Liberalism as a Woke Religion

Psychologically, it provides an ersatz faith for those who cannot live without the hope of universal salvation inculcated by Christianity.

Woke movements, far from being a universal emancipatory force, are a symptom of Western decline and a hyperbolic extension of liberalism, particularly potent in English-speaking countries. This ideology serves multiple functions: it rationalizes a failing capitalism by diverting attention from economic inequality to identity conflicts, and it acts as a vehicle for "surplus elites" to secure power and status in a competitive professional landscape.

Not Marxism or Post-modernism, woke thinking lacks the intellectual rigor of Marx and the subtlety of Derrida or Foucault. Instead, it functions as a "career as much as a cult," where redundant graduates commodify hyper-liberal values to gain social standing. University campuses, with their inquisitorial regimes and mandatory diversity statements, serve as models for this pervasive social control, prioritizing conformity over genuine intellectual inquiry or merit.

Rooted in Christian monotheism, hyper-liberalism translates core Christian ideas—individual primacy, egalitarianism, universalism, and meliorism—into secular forms, but without the tempering influence of divine mercy or forgiveness. Victimhood confers moral authority, mirroring Christian narratives, but is used by "woke liberals" to enhance their self-esteem rather than for genuine compassion. This "Puritan moral frenzy" leads to intolerance and a "moral counter-revolution," threatening civil peace and the very liberal freedoms it purports to champion.

6. The Illusion of Progress and Cyclical History

There is no arc of history, short or long.

The belief in linear historical progress, particularly the idea that liberal democracy is the "final form of human government," is a profound delusion. Theories like Hayek's evolutionary capitalism or Fukuyama's "End of History" were "farrago of errors and fallacies," failing to recognize that evolution, as Darwin understood it, has no destination or inherent purpose. Societies do not inevitably converge on a single, ideal form of government.

History is cyclical, marked by the rise and fall of great powers and the recurrence of diverse regimes—monarchies, republics, tyrannies, theocracies, and stateless zones. The post-Cold War era's "rules-based" global liberal order was merely an artifact of US military supremacy, which began to unravel with American overreach and the resurgence of geopolitical rivalry. The notion that "History is like Humanity, an iridescent apparition" underscores the ephemeral nature of grand narratives.

Russia's history exemplifies this cyclical pattern, with repeated unmaking and remaking of worlds, from the collapse of tsarism to the Soviet experiment and Putin's current "klepto-theocracy." The West's own dismantling of liberal freedoms further demonstrates that the supposed destination of history has disappeared in the very societies where it originated. This reality suggests that the future will resemble the past, with disparate regimes interacting in a condition of global anarchy, rather than progressing towards a universal liberal ideal.

7. The Destructive Impulse in Human Nature

Killing for the sake of words gives meaning to their lives.

Beyond self-preservation, human beings possess a profound destructive impulse, often masked by ideologies and the pursuit of abstract ideals. Hobbes, while recognizing human conflict, overlooked the uniquely human drive to seek death for oneself and inflict it on others to secure meaning or vent rage. This "passion for destruction" is a core aspect of the human animal, distinguishing it from other creatures.

Sabina Spielrein's "death-wish" theory proposed that destruction is inherent in creation, a necessary component of the species' drive to reproduce and evolve, even at the cost of individual survival. However, Freud's interpretation of Thanatos as a pure drive to destruction, finding satisfaction in death, better describes the ideologies that led to mass murder in the 20th century. This "psychoanalytical paradox" suggests that mass murder can be the most extreme expression of death denial, as humans kill for abstractions to escape their own mortality.

The horrors of totalitarianism, from the Soviet purges to the Holocaust, illustrate this destructive impulse, where the liquidation of "historically obsolete" or "less than fully human" groups was justified by grand ideological projects. Figures like Jung, who collaborated with the Nazis, and Eitingon, linked to Soviet security services, show how even intellectuals can be captivated by death-dealing ideologies. This reveals a profound flaw in the human psyche, where the pursuit of meaning can lead to unimaginable cruelty, making "destruction as the cause of coming into being" a terrifying reality.

8. The Anthropocene's End and Planetary Realities

The Anthropocene is not the age of human dominion but the moment when the position of the species on the planet comes into question.

Human dominion over the planet is a modern conceit, as the Anthropocene marks not human triumph but a critical questioning of the species' place on Earth. The illusion of a "rules-based" global liberal order concealed the underlying realities of geopolitical rivalry and planetary indifference. Accelerating climate change, pandemics, and resource wars are forcing a brutal rebalancing, reminiscent of past global crises that drastically reduced human populations.

The myth of unending economic growth and the transition to renewable energy are exposed as chimeras. The demand for minerals for green technologies necessitates prodigious mining, powered by fossil fuels, making "renewable energy a fossil fuel derivative." This spiraling demand fuels new "Great Games" of imperial rivalry, as seen in the Arctic, transforming the planet's last redoubts into zones of geopolitical conflict and environmental despoliation.

The Earth treats human regimes with impartial indifference; only their material impact matters. Societies that treat climate change as a moral tale will perish or be absorbed by more pragmatic ones. The only practical response is adaptation, potentially through high technology like geo-engineering, which carries its own risks, including weaponization. Ultimately, if humans fail to adjust, the planet will impose the necessary changes, rewilding itself and ending humankind's centrality in its life.

9. The West's Unconscious Death-Wish

An unconscious death-wish is at work.

The liberal West is consumed by an idea of freedom that paradoxically leads to an "unlimited despotism," as Dostoevsky foresaw. This hyper-liberal vision condemns any curb on human will as repression, believing that once societal injustices are corrected, individuals can create their own ideal worlds. However, this pursuit of unbounded self-determination necessitates pervasive monitoring and control, purifying language and scrutinizing minds for "thought-crime."

This self-immolation, tragic and farcical, is driven by an unconscious death-wish, a lack of self-awareness that prevents the West from recognizing its own decline. Conservative calls for a "suicide of the West" highlight this spectacle, but the contemporary Western mind is too deluded to grasp its own demise. Attempts to revive the liberal West are futile, akin to "a prescription to a diseased old man to become young again."

Nietzsche identified this death-wish in "Socratism"—the belief that reason can redeem humankind from evil and tragedy. This Apollonian cult, detached from its mystical origins, insists science can overcome chaos, yet science often serves destructive impulses. The deification of the human animal, from transhumanism to the conquest of death, is the inevitable endpoint of liberalism divorced from its theological matrix, leading to a profound self-destruction where humans are left with nothing.

10. Peace as a Temporary Truce

Where it can be achieved, peace is a truce, partial and temporary, between the human animal and itself.

Hobbes's hidden message is that there is no final deliverance from the state of nature; Leviathan, like humans, is mortal. He was a truer liberal than his successors in recognizing that peace can be achieved in many forms of regime, not just one. The belief in a single, universal form of rule is itself a kind of tyranny, ignoring the diverse paths societies may take.

The future will be a complex tapestry of disparate regimes, not a convergence on a single ideal. Putin's klepto-theocracy, China's high-tech Panopticon, India's potential return to a tolerant empire, and the EU's morphing into a "faded kaleidoscope" are all possibilities. The US, if it avoids global war, may drift as a "florid hybrid of fundamentalist sects, woke cults and techno-futurist oligarchs," surrounded by ungoverned zones.

Humanity's "privilege of absurdity" lies in its awareness of mortality, which impels it to seek immortality in ideas and, tragically, to kill for words. Yet, this nothingness within can also impel action in the service of life, as seen in Samuel Beckett's resistance during WWII. Ultimately, life itself, with its inherent pull, steers us through the storm, reminding us that peace is a fragile, temporary truce in the ongoing struggle of the human animal with its own nature.

Last updated: February 12, 2026