ABSTRACT
The charismatic psychologist R. D. Laing, one of the sharpest prophets of this vision, expressed its insights in strong images that built up a new and intense individualist mythology. This chapter talks about hobbism, which is a doctrine that was always extreme and has naturally been conveyed through a salvo of striking phrases, so the author shall not try to examine Thomas Hobbes's own more subtle and various meanings. The egoist philosopher whom he cites as central to this vogue is Hobbes, whose diatribes against useless self-sacrifice did indeed have a huge influence. Life was a continuous free fight, and beyond the limited and temporary relations of the family, the Hobbesian war of each against all was the normal state of existence. Huxley's day, however, we have learnt much more about the lives of hunter-gatherers and about those of our primate relatives.
