Comments on: What is a state? http://c4ss.org building public awareness of left-wing market anarchism Sat, 24 Jan 2015 02:24:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1 By: bill g http://c4ss.org/market-anarchism-faq/what-is-a-government-or-state/comment-page-1#comment-156876 Sun, 31 Mar 2013 13:33:40 +0000 http://c4ss.org/?page_id=4517#comment-156876 That's only one side of the psychoevolutionary coin. Tendencies towards the negative "pack" behavior you describe are also tempered by more cooperative and empathic traits. These traits aren't distributed equally among individuals and they are influenced by the groups you participate in. In the hunter-gatherer state aggressive assholes are valuable for defense and hunting but tempered in the group by more empathic and kinder individuals. Unfortunately, the hunter/fighter types are very destructive in our technological civilization where machines and organizations can give people huge destructive power and reach.

]]> By: Robert Johnson http://c4ss.org/market-anarchism-faq/what-is-a-government-or-state/comment-page-1#comment-155977 Sun, 02 Dec 2012 20:54:44 +0000 http://c4ss.org/?page_id=4517#comment-155977 humans, being primates, are pack animals and will naturally form packs (read: gangs/mafia). these packs will have the monopoly of violence and hence rule over their respective territories. however, in contrast with other primate packs, human packs seek to extend territory indefinitely, hence resulting in constant territorial war.

the packs who win these wars consolidate their power, take over the territory of the losing pack and start ruling over both the winner's and the loser's territory. this is how tribes, lordships, empires and at the end of the day states are born. the state is the largest, baddest, most consolidated mafia at the end of the mafia food chain. the struggle for democracy is to ask this mafia to be nicer. if you strip out the state, you go back to the smaller competing mafias, which i believe is regressive not progressive…

it also is an infinite loop. the smaller mafias will consolidate again in time and turn into tribes, lordships, states, empires, etc…

a perfectly competitive market for violence is not a pleasant one for most people. a monopoly over violence i believe is utility maximizing.

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