Hobbes, Thomas (1651). Leviathan The famous frontispiece to Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathandepicts the head and torso of a long-haired, mustachioed man. Upon close scrutiny, it becomes evident that the man’s torso and arms are composed of tiny individual persons, crowded closely together and each looking toward the head of the composite Leviathan.

What is "obedience to authority?"

It is a psychosomatic experience. A human being imagines that he is bound to the body of the sovereign: the leader. Since he imagines he is part of the sovereign, he is not capable of resisting the will of the sovereign.

He is contained within the sovereign's body, and the body of the sovereign is contained within him. There is no possibility of resistance.

Why do human beings bind to the body of the sovereign? Why do we willingly become "members" of society?

Because we wish to partake of the imagined omnipotence of this enormous body. We desire to bind to the body politic. Oppressive as this posture may seem, we are unable to abandon it.

The Sovereign is gigantic and immortal one. We are tiny specs, doomed to non-existence. Hitler said, "You are nothing, your nation is everything." One abandons the nothingness of individual existence for the everything of national life.

Why do so many people want to participate in politics?

Because the body of the sovereign--the leader--seems to be "where its at." This is where everyone else is: united with the soverign. This is where omnipotence is. This is where "society" is. Human life is the true "social life" of man (Marx). "Nobody wants to be left out, it's a family affair."

"Society" seems far away, above us. But it seems to be where reality is located. The national body continues to exist even as individuals die. "Fame, I want to live forever."

And if one can extricate oneself from the King's body?

How does it feel to be on your own, a complete unknown, like a rolling stone.

Richard Koenigsberg