The Hobbes Game – FUN FUN FUN Game for Social Studies Classes

How did man “get along” before government?  What came first, government or man?  Will we every know?!

In much the same way that “atom smashers” collide atoms so they can see how the subatomic particles interact with each other (to see what the early universe may have acted like), we can “smash society” to see how people may have acted before government and society were established.

Thomas Hobbes theorized that before man created government (or living along with us in the here and now) was a state he found himself in called “the state of nature.”  In this state, there were no agreed upon laws.  In this state, we all have 100% of our rights, but so does everyone else.  Where our Rights overlap, conflict occurred.  But this conflict could not be resolved by our “common judge” because there wasn’t one.  Man reserved every Natural Right for himself, but only as far as he could protect those Natural Rights with wile or force.  Hobbes stated that the state of nature was a “war of all against all” and life in the state of nature was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”.  The following is a way to give your students a taste of the STATE OF NATURE without actually having them kill each other.

This game can be used in any situation where the fabric of society has broken down (French Revolution, Riots, Political Theory of Government, new colony on Mars, etc)

Hobbes’ “State of Nature Game” or “Articles of Confederation” game

 

This game is meant to reflect Thomas Hobbes’ “state of nature” or the condition between the states under the Articles of Confederation.  In either situation we have a chaotic mass of individual players who would be better off if they cooperated, but do not live in a situation in which they can be compelled to cooperate with one another.

 

To begin:

1. All students need to have a clean sheet of paper on their desk and something to write with.

2. On board write a T chart.  The left side of the T chart will be titled “points” and the right side of the T chart will be titled “people”.

3. Underneath the left (under points) write 1 and then below that 3.

4. Underneath the right (under people) write “all” and then below that 4.

5. It should look like this

Points| People

                                                     1  |   all

     3  |   8

 *{8  |   3}

Game rules:

1. Students are to write down either 1 point or 3 points.  These points will be added to their next or last quiz.  There will be 6 rounds and the points will accumulate so that they cannot lose any points they’ve already won.  The teacher will need to keep track of each individuals point totals.

2. If “all” students write down 1 point then everyone gets 1 point added to their next or last quiz.  Students may write down 3 points, but only 4 or fewer students can claim the 3 points.

3. If more than 4 students claim 3 points then everyone loses all of their points for that round (even the people who only wrote down 1).  Points already won in previous rounds cannot be taken away, but points in the present round being played can be lost.

4. There will be six rounds.  The first two rounds the students cannot talk to each other at all.  The next two rounds they can only speak to people within one seat of them.  The final two rounds they can speak to anyone anywhere in the room.

5. Each round the two numbers on the left and the bottom number on the right will change.  Depending on how successful the class is I will often entice or bait the more aggressive players by making the points on the left higher and higher.  There should be a large difference between the lower numbers and the larger numbers so that the kids who cooperate will feel a sort of injustice when the more aggressive kids start racking up the big totals.  Often times, the quieter kids get mad and try to overthrow the louder kids.  *I often add another layer of numbers to complicate the game if the class is cooperating too much.

6. There is a secret 7^th round where the class will elect to kick out 4 kids.  A larger odd number like 87 will be written on the board.   If the class can allocate the total number of points amongst themselves then they get those points.  If they are even one point above or below the total then the four who were kicked out will receive the 87 points to be divided amongst them.

Additional Notes:

1. When the leaders of the class start speaking up I, as the “god” of the state of nature, will ask the other kids “Who made him/her the leader?”  or “Did you appoint yourself the king of the classroom?” or “I though we lived in a democracy?”

2. I try to get the class to disagree as much as possible.  Remember, I am the state of nature.  I’m here to make things difficult on this nascent government.

3. I give updates of point totals.  Usually there are have’s and have not’s.  Being reminded of not having any points makes cooperating difficult.

   

In the end, there are several embedded lessons in an activity like this: Who gets what? Why should they get it?  Isn’t it better for the students to hand power over to a central authority and have that authority equally divide the points?  Shouldn’t that central authority also get some points…maybe more?  Is there really a legitimate form of government?  How do we define “RIGHTS” within a chaotic state like this?