 I'm listening to Thomas Hobbs Leviathan. He says that the actions of man proceed from his opinions and If you want to govern people's actions you have to govern their opinions and I'm not so sure About how true that is All right, maybe in a time when people took their opinions more seriously All right, so in pre-modern times and people thought that their opinions were Objective statements of truth and people willing to you know kill over the doctrine of the Trinity Okay, maybe Circumstances like that you want to govern man's actions the sovereign has to govern his opinions so Thomas Hobbs Held that the state of nature is cruel the man's life in it a short nasty and brutish and so therefore man needs to throw in his lot with a with a totalitarian government and Give it the power to regulate speech and even conscience and Spinoza came along said yeah, I need to regulate man's thinking and need to regulate man's opinions and Carl Schmitt said that the downfall of Western civilization Was because of Spinoza opening up space For any opinions whatsoever So Schmidt would argue That the more united the nation the stronger it is and all things being equal. That's true But sometimes having a diversity of opinions can release You know all sorts of Innovations You don't have with the uniformity of opinions so This is where Carl Schmitt thought Western civilization took a wrong turn okay with the thinking of Spinoza that the sovereign should not try to regulate man's opinions and it just seems Horrifying in the 21st century to Regulate man's opinions Why should the government regulate your religious opinions, but it's kind of what Godwood podcast is on about once Sounds like you'd be quite fond of a little more unity and religious opinion so I think Made a difference between the modern and the pre-modern and the post-modern worlds is how seriously we take our own opinions particularly on matters of faith people Don't tend to take religion so seriously anymore. They don't kill over it usually and So therefore Opinions that you're not going to kill and die for not nearly as Threatening to the social welfare and the health of the nation His opinions that you are willing to kill and die for Man, I want to get up there tough of the Santa Monica Mountains Have the fog Roll through me Pierce me Wash me clean Remove all my unrighteousness Break bend blow me So that I may be born anew