[lbo-talk] The state

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

> --- Charles
> http://www.lsa.umich.edu/anthro/faculty_staff/wright.html
> > ) Humans had been
> > living in non-hierarchical societies for , oh ,
> > 200,000 years when the state
> > arose, according to current paleoanthropolgical
> > evidence.
> >
> > So, there is nothing in our nature that prevents us
> > from living without
> > states or  . .. It is possible for the
> > state to whither away,
> > naturally

Charles, birds have hierarchies, dogs live in hierarchical packs and so do
most primates. What makes you think that proto-humans did not?  Lack of
evidence (which is understandable since these groups were non-literate) is
not the evidence to the contrary.

I agree with Justin that we need the state to have all the goods things that
we enjoy, and it is even better if the state is a democratic one.  Modern
statelessness (e.g. in Afghanistan or Ethiopia) will almost certainly result
in warlordism of the worst kind rather than hunting and gathering utopia.

Wojtek