In a long-forgotten corner of history, Thomas Hobbes imagined a world without law: “solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish.”
To avert such a fate, he proposed the Leviathan, an absolute power that, in exchange for security, demands the surrender of individual freedom.
For centuries, humanity believed it had transcended medieval authoritarianism through the construction of a system of moral and categorical imperatives known as fundamental rights universal and equal for all, placed at the very core of reason and human dignity.
Today, that project appears to be unraveling, and the specter of the Leviathan returns, now wearing modern masks.
The universal reason that inspired the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 was grounded in the conviction that all human beings, simply by virtue of being human, possess an inviolable dignity. It served as an ethical beacon in the aftermath of wartime atrocities. In recent decades, however, that consensus has fractured under the strain of cultural relativism, exclusionary nationalisms, and the prevailing logic of security.
We are living through a paradox: while technology draws us closer together, politics pulls us apart. Faced with real or perceived threats —terrorism, drug trafficking, pandemics, migration crises— states adopt measures that sacrifice freedoms on the altar of security: mass surveillance, restrictions on protest, and fortified borders.
The modern Leviathan no longer requires an absolute monarch; algorithms and unilateral decisions that undermine the agreements forged at the end of the Second World War suffice.
Hobbes believed fear to be the cement of social order. Today, that fear is amplified through social media. Post-truth and polarization have eroded trust in institutions and in the very notion of a shared truth. Without a common foundation of rationality, universal rights come to seem abstract, remote, even “imposed” by distant elites.
The modern Leviathan is not only the state. It also takes the form of technology corporations that control our data and shape our perceptions, as well as populist movements that promise simple solutions in exchange for unwavering loyalty.
In this context, the discourse of human rights sounds, to many, like empty rhetoric.
Are we doomed to repeat the Hobbesian pact?
Not necessarily.
What is urgently required is a reinvention of universal reason for the twenty-first century—not as an imposition, but as an intercultural dialogue rooted in respect for the national and cultural sovereignty of peoples; in the right to development based on free and responsible trade that enables improvements in living standards for all; in the fight against emerging crimes such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, organ trade, international fraud, and cybercrime; and in the defense of the environment and vulnerable groups.
The United Nations has made a significant contribution to the construction of a shared social reason; nevertheless, contemporary realities demonstrate that the organization is in need of reform.
We need a new universal social contract that strikes a balance between security and freedom, and that rebuilds trust from the local to the global level.
Hobbes’s Leviathan was a necessary evil to prevent something worse. Our challenge today is to demonstrate that respectful cooperation—grounded in the recognition, protection, and promotion of fundamental individual and collective rights—is more powerful than fear.
Otherwise, the end of universal reason may well be the prelude to a new age of monsters.
Director of the Institute of Human Rights of the University of San Carlos of Guatemala.
Director of the Institute of Human Rights of the University of San Carlos of Guatemala.