GYMOCRACY PART IV: LIBERTY AND PROPERTY

John Locke took a crack at the social contract as well, and in doing so introduced a concept of liberty as it related to the protection of property.  Whereas Hobbes’ social contract involves an
unquestionable sovereign with absolute power, Locke felt it was necessary to protect the product that is the result of man mixing his labor with his environment.  A sovereign still maintained peace for those in the contract and kept them from the state of nature, but was forbidden from the properties of those within the contract.  With this protection, not only was stability the goal of the contract, but prosperity as well, for man could now not only be free from the dangers of the state of nature, but could in turn labor to create and improve the environment within the social contract for the betterment of both self and others.

...seriously?

What is your property?  These are the things that require your own personal input on a program.  Under the rule of your absolute sovereign from above, you will grow and learn, and in doing so will discover certain ideas and concepts that resonate well with you and result in prosperity.  Additionally, you will also encounter ideas that, regardless of the success rate experienced by others, simply do not work for you.  No two people are alike, and though the general principles for growth remain the same, there always exists a realm of individuality and modification that can result in better, more sustainable growth with minimal risk of injury.

Do not use your property as an excuse to avoid hard work or training that you do not enjoy.  The liberty you have is not granted to you to make you weaker.  The intent here is that you utilize the liberty granted to you here in order to maximize the benefit of the social contract, and in doing so your sovereign is in turn able to continue to provide security and prosperity for you.

This will never get old

You must also keep in mind that, just as how Locke’s theory was developed after Hobbes, this progression in your training is an evolution rather than a starting point.  You must still have the phase wherein you surrender all control to an absolute sovereign before you start to decide on your property.  An unenlightened man is simply in a state of war, scrambling for resources, whereas one who has escaped the state of nature long enough to evolve can have a greater understanding of how to better their environment.

The question then arises as to how one knows what is best to claim as property in their training, and for this we turn to the teachings of Niccolo Machiavelli.