Protective Barrier Number 2:

Government
Activity 3: The Purpose of Government is to Protect the Person and Property of Citizens
from the Evil Side of People

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men…”
(Declaration of Independence, 1776).

A. Based on these statements, what would life be like if there were no governments? How
would the lack of government affect the ability of people to achieve the goal of human life?

 “During the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in
that condition which is called Warre…. In such condition, there is no place for Industry;
because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no
Navigation … no commodious Building… no Arts; no Letters … and which is worst of
all, continuall feare and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short” (Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651, Part I, Chapter 13).

 “If man in the state of nature be so free … why will he part with his freedom? Why will
he … subject himself to the dominion and control of any other power? To which it is
obvious to answer, that … the enjoyment of the property he has in this state is very
unsafe, very unsecure” (John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Ch. 9, 1689-1690).

B. Based on these statements, what is the purpose of government? What is the connection
between government and the possibility of people achieving the goal of human life?

“What was the primary and the principal object in the institution of government? Was it—I
speak of the primary and principal object—was it to acquire new rights by a human
establishment? Or was it, by a human establishment, to acquire a new security for the possession
or the recovery of those rights, to the enjoyment or acquisition of which we were previously
entitled by the immediate gift, or by the unerring law, of our all-wise and all-beneficent
Creator?” (James Wilson, Lectures on Law, “Of the Natural Rights of Individuals,” 1790-91).

C. Based on these statements, what is the purpose of government? What is the connection
between government and the possibility of people achieving the goal of human life?

 “The principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute
rights [the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty; and the right of private
property], which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature…” (Sir William
Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765, Book I, Chapter 1).
  “[The insecurity of rights without government] makes [man] willing … to join in society
with others … for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties, and estates…. The
great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into commonwealths, and putting
themselves under government, is the preservation of their [lives, liberties, and estates]”
(John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Ch. 9, 1689-1690).

D. Based on this statement, what is “liberty”? What is the connection between “liberty”
and the goal of human life?

“In all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law, there is no freedom:
for liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others; which cannot be, where there is
no law…” (John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, 1689-1690, Chapter 6).