Three Meals Away: The Fragile Veneer of Civilization and the Fantasy of Locke’s Natural Law
John Locke, one of the architects of modern political thought, envisioned a world where human beings, guided by natural law, would live in harmony, respecting each other's life, liberty, and property. He imagined that even in the absence of government, reason and morality would keep people in check.
It’s a nice theory.
A comforting illusion.
1. Civilization Is a Performance, Not a Reality
- We like to think of ourselves as advanced, evolved, and above our primitive ancestors.
- We believe in laws, human rights, democracy, equality.
- We have digital economies, social contracts, and institutions that seem unshakable.
But all of it—the financial system, social norms, political ideologies—is built on a delicate web of assumptions, trust, and routine. The moment those assumptions break, the entire structure collapses.
Example: Look at any natural disaster, power outage, or food shortage. People panic, loot, steal, fight. It doesn’t take months or years—it takes hours. The only thing keeping people in check is the belief that someone is watching.
2. Locke’s Fantasy vs. Hobbes’ Reality
- Locke’s Natural Law: Human beings, in their natural state, are rational and moral, respecting each other’s rights even without a government.
- Hobbes’ State of Nature: Without a strong authority, life becomes "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
The reality? Hobbes was right.
History doesn’t show a world where people naturally cooperate out of moral obligation. It shows a world where people cooperate when it benefits them, and compete when it doesn’t.
- There is no natural law—only natural power.
- There is no inherent morality—only shifting social contracts.
- There is no self-regulating human order—only dominance and submission.
3. The Great Equalizer: Chaos Doesn’t Care About Ideology
In times of crisis, the illusions of equality, justice, and progress are quickly exposed as luxuries.
- All the pseudo-empowerment movements—OnlyFans feminism, social justice crusades, woke capitalism—exist in an era of stability.
- The moment survival replaces comfort, the rules change.
- A breakdown in supply chains, a war, or a major crisis, and suddenly people aren't debating gender pronouns or ethical labor—they’re fighting for water, food, and shelter.
When the caveman reality resurfaces, no one cares about tweets, activism, or virtue signaling. Only power, strength, and resources matter.
4. A Brutal Thought Experiment: The 48-Hour Reset
Imagine an event—a global blackout, a fuel crisis, or a system failure.
- Day 1: People assume it will be fixed. No panic yet.
- Day 2: Supplies run low. Stores get rushed. Tension rises.
- Day 3: Food scarcity. Fights break out. The first people start taking what they need by force.
- Day 5: Rule of law collapses. Cities burn. People revert to ancient instincts.
What happens to your feminism, your activism, your progressive ideals?
- Would OnlyFans models still be empowered, or would they be looking for a protector?
- Would social justice warriors still be debating microaggressions, or would they be begging for food?
- Would the gender roles everyone rejected suddenly return out of necessity?
Equality disappears the moment survival takes priority.
5. Why Natural Law Doesn’t Exist
- Locke assumed people are naturally rational and cooperative. But history and psychology show people are only cooperative when the environment is stable and when they don’t have to fight for resources.
- The rule of law is not natural—it is imposed. If natural law existed, police, courts, and governments wouldn’t be necessary.
- The moment the system collapses, morality collapses with it.
Hobbes’ "war of all against all" is not some distant dystopia—it’s the reality of every failed state, every war-torn country, every disaster zone where the rule of law vanishes overnight.
6. What Holds It Together?
- Force, Order, and the Threat of Consequences. Civilization exists because we are afraid of what happens without it.
- Routine. People comply because they don’t expect things to change.
- Distractions. Bread and circuses keep people pacified.
When force weakens, routine is disrupted, and distractions vanish, the real world reveals itself. A brutal, tribal, power-driven world.
7. The Inconvenient Truth
- Most people don’t want freedom—they want security.
- Most people aren’t independent—they are system-dependent.
- Civilization isn’t real—it’s a controlled environment.
Final Thought: The Great Delusion
What people call "progress" today is not progress—it’s the illusion of progress, allowed to exist because times are stable.
- We haven’t changed.
- We aren’t evolved.
- We are three meals away from remembering who we really are.