Hobbesian College Rivalries?

Two weekends ago, (the weekend of the Michigan vs. Michigan State game), I visited a few friends at Michigan State University. Since it was the weekend of the big game, we were naturally sporting our Michigan gear. My older sister graduated from Michigan State and I have quite a few friends  who are currently attending. For this reason, subconsciously, I was under the impression that this was a “friendly” in-state rivalry. Reflecting retrospectively, this was probably naïve.

Video’s like this were found all over social media leading up to the big game.

After reading The Leviathan, there are interesting similarities between Hobbes’ state of nature and the way college rivalries affect behavior today. Shortly after arriving, we were getting taken on a tour of campus by our Michigan State friends. We were walking by a dorm when a student leaned out his window and shouted a vulgarity directed at us. He proceeded to shout what sounded like a vulgarity directed towards the girls we were with – girls who are attending Michigan State and were wearing Michigan State gear – just because they were with us. This kind of trend basically followed for the rest of the evening. People shouting vulgarities that usually didn’t get much more creative than the “f-word” and usually accompanied by them waving the middle finger in our direction. At one point in our walk around campus, we ran into a girl who noticed our Michigan gear and came over and told us that she also was a Michigan student. She told us she was wearing a Michigan t-shirt and was with her boyfriend, who attended Michigan State, when a Michigan State student walking by had tried to spit on her.

Here is where I’ve noticed my first connection to social contract theory – more specifically, Thomas Hobbes’ thoughts on social contract theory. Hobbes argued that human nature is to be in a perpetual state of chaos and disarray (war) and the only way to escape this was through forming covenants and relinquishing freedoms to an absolute sovereign.

The man himself, Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)

This is a very basic summary of Hobbesian thought – but a particular nuance I’m interested in pertains to his thoughts on what causes quarrel. I think we can agree, especially after reading about my experiences, that our friendly rivalry has jumped up a notch to a “quarrel”. Hobbes argued that competition, diffidence, and honor are the three causes of quarrel. We can find all three of these qualities in what this rivalry has become. Competition is obvious; the rivalry is historically based on athletics – an inherently competitive activity. But today, with the job market being so turbulent, our universities “ranking” have become an even more important cause of competition. Diffidence is an inherent quality in human nature – we all have various insecurities. I believe these insecurities become even more exposed when discussing college choices because of the various doubts that are present to varying degrees within all of us – choice of college is, after all, a big decision and naturally leads to some doubts. Lastly, perhaps the most interesting cause of quarrel Hobbes lists: honor. Hobbes asserts that quarrel is caused when people seek honor; and people seek honor by asserting themselves through acts of power.

There is a certain honor that seems to accompany bashing students from rival schools, much like the honor that accompanies “defending” coveted mascot representations like this Spartan statue.

One could argue that shouting at students from rival schools is an act of power – seeing as they are a form of majority, singling out elements of a minority. Thus, showing that Hobbes’ three causes of quarrel all exist in today’s Michigan vs. Michigan State rivalry.

To clarify, I’m not necessarily complaining about all of this. With the exception of the spitting, it’s not like I was particularly offended by any of the behavior that weekend. Going in, I had expected chants of “Go Green” or their fight song to be shouted in our direction; this happened, but oddly enough, this happened less frequently than the vulgarities described above. I also feel like I need to point out that I’m not blaming Michigan State and saying anything about their student body: there is a very good chance Michigan State students would have a very similar experience if they came here and wore green and white around our campus before a big game. But I have began to question if this state of rivalry is “okay”. I think rivalries are fun, I truly enjoy all our rivalries – they are just another “game” we play, and as described in my earlier blog post, play is vital to our well-being, but perhaps we have allowed our “friendly rivalries” to regress a little too far. Thomas Hobbes, in The Leviathan, described human nature as being prone to falling into uncivilized and selfish competition. Calling something “Hobbesian” actually is loosely defined as “involving unrestrained, selfish, and uncivilized competition among participants”. Hobbes warned that imposing covenants of various forms could prevent this sort of archaic behavior. Compared to the society described in The Leviathan, almost anyone would argue that our society has developed far past Hobbes’ description. So why does what may have once been a friendly rivalry regressed to the point of Hobbesian chaos? Maybe I’m still being naïve for thinking that spitting on people is taking this rivalry too far. Maybe I’m alone in this regard. Now I’m not under any sort of delusion that my handful of negative experiences can be generalized to all students participating in this rivalry, but all the same, it seems a tad ridiculous that we even hear this much about inappropriate behavior pertaining to college rivalries. This is all about a game. I would hope we won’t lose friends and ruin relationships by truly falling into a Hobbesian state.

We managed to stay friends despite the rivalry between our schools; hopefully this is a more common outcome. My own picture.