Jared Diamond is a damn interesting writer. Consider this passage from his seminal novel: “…Those are the reasons why large societies cannot function with band organization and instead are complex kleptocracies. But we are still left with the question of how small, simple societies actually evolve or amalgamate into large, complex ones. Amalgamation, centralized conflict resolution, decision making, economic redistribution, and kleptocratic religion don’t just develop automatically through a Rousseauesque social contract…”
Note to self: I agree with Diamond. For alll the anti-statehood embodied in BM, statehood is the natural result of power struggles (“kleptocracies”) between large groups of individuals, which naturally dominate over smaller ones. I guess the lesson from all of this is that the State simply is—it’s not anti-evolutionary or anti-people, it just is. And a corollary for me might be that working for change of it (even if a small part) is not necessarily an exercise that is anti-instinctual or even unhealthy. Viva America! Viva California!
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