2. Society versus the State

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one;

Thomas Paine, Of the Origin and Design of Government

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

George Washington, Of the Origin and Design of Government

Social cooperation under the division of labor is the ultimate and sole source of man’s success in his struggle for survival and his endeavors to improve as much as possible the material conditions of his well-being.

Ludwig von Mises, The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality

Society and the governing body that we know as the state are two different things. In fact, they exist as contradictions to each other. One is a voluntary organization wherein people have come together to cooperate to their own mutual benefit; the other is involuntary, its members being held together by a force that threatens them with violence and imprisonment should they stray from its rules and boundaries.

An example of a society is the relationship between a man and a woman in love. Two people, bonded to each other by physical attraction, the pleasure of each other’s company, and the compassion that is natural between people who have learned the meaning of sharing things, their relationship is essentially voluntary and neither would think of using force on the other for his or her personal benefit. The inherent characteristics of this society, like all societies, is the voluntary cooperation that occurs to the benefit all of members thereof.

A state can also be modeled as having a membership of one man and one woman. However, in this case, the relationship is one wherein the stronger of the two takes whatever he wants, whenever he wants, from the weaker member. In a state made of up of only two such members, the physical part of their relationship is called “rape,” wherein the weaker submits to the stronger, either directly from violence itself or from the mere threat of violence that the stronger holds over her. The fact that the state is a democracy does not alone justify the force that the majority can use to abuse the minority. If the state is made up of two men and a woman, the majority, made up of men, can vote on rape almost as easily as a single tyrant can.

This, of course, does not mean that we can live without a state. The mere existence of a hostile foreign state requires us to band together into a state of our own. However, we can follow the guidance of people like George Washington, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and the other wise leaders who founded our American state and assure ourselves that we, as individuals, are sufficiently protected from the state’s limited power.

In also means that we need to be introspective of ourselves and look inside to find out what dark shadows reside in our souls that make us want to give even more power to that violent body, the state.