Pessimistic Leftism

Traditionally, leftism has been based on a rosy picture of human nature. Rousseau believed that man in the state of nature is moral. Paine believed human nature was basically good. This stands in contradistinction to conservatives from Augustine on, who saw men as fundamentally tending towards sin and evil. Now the left has reverted to the position that man is corrupt. People cannot be left to make even dietary decisions because of inborn stupidity. Just as with the original statist, Thomas Hobbes, the newer leftists believe that political society makes life tolerable. Indeed, there is no new thing under the sun