‘Homo Digitalis’

Homo digitalis are moral beings who seek truth and justice through digital communication. They are easily hurt, including by words. Hoaxes emerge from vulnerable hearts and serve as an entry point for evil.

Kompas/Handining

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At the beginning of the age of modernity, Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan (1651), which attempted to offer ways to resolve societal chaos. He imagined a condition before the foundation of states, which he termed “state of nature”. Under such a condition, the freedom of a single individual was seen as a threat to the freedom of every other individual to the extent that it would practically negate others’ freedom.

“In such a condition,” Hobbes wrote, “The life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Hobbes then offered his solution to this sorrowful state. Each man must submit their right to act to a party – or primus inter pares – so long as every other man also submits their respective rights to this party. This party is the state. Only the state can impose violence upon others. Thanks to this monopoly of violence, a lawful state will enjoy internal peace. The threat of punishment forces individuals to control themselves and to respect one another. The state civilizes man.