1156 Monopoly on Violence

The only thing keeping someone from taking your stuff, raping your wife & killing you is someone else stronger. You by yourself cannot compete with psychopaths and their lusty cousins from committing harm. Even if you band together with your neighbors into a militia, there’s always a bigger one, and that’s assuming you can trust your militia not exploit their power against you. This situation can only be solved via a monopoly on violence: where one enforcement entity, presumably trustworthy & equal-handed, is the only one that can act with deadly force. This is the genesis of the state whose primary purpose has always been security & protection. Nations with weak governments that allow private militias are the most ineffective at protecting their citizens. Arguably, if the state enforcement entities are biased or untrustworthy, it’s worse than anarchy, but better one enemy than many. Unfortunately, the institutions we’ve depended on have compromised themselves for political reasons, and the citizenry may be forced to rescind the monopoly on violence.