Encryption: The Role Of Government By Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes would have had a love/hate relationship with the whole idea of encryption. In his view, the role of government is to protect us and that also is the entire point of encryption, to protect the consumer. He would have driven for everything to be heavily encrypted to prevent foreign governments, terrorists, and homeland threats from being able to use technology to harm any citizens of the state. Where he would have ended though is when encryption started to prevent the state from being able to protect the citizens. In the words of James Comey, “encryption on mobile devices effectively left law enforcement dark to emerging threats”(Comey). If encrypted technologies are inhibiting the state’s ability to protect us, in even the slightest way, is where his view would change. At this point there is a grey area of opinion would begin for him. Encryption protects us to a point, but then hinders the ability of the state department to protect us; however, if encryption were to be outlawed citizens would arguably be even more vulnerable to the increasing amount of dangerous …show more content…
They do not even have the same definition of the common good. Hobbes says that everyone is always in search of power to have a one up on the next person in order to be happy. So a powerful government is only there to protect us and keep us happy. Locke says that political power is the right to promote the common good. Although, Hobbes might agree that it is to promote the common good, however, they have completely different ideas of the definition of the common good. In Locke’s eyes, absolute power is the problem and all absolute monarchs should be dismantled. In a government with absolute power there is no ability to defend your own rights and even a state of war can occur when there is a state. Therefore, you might as well have a say in what your government does, because war can happen whether there is or is not a state in place to protect