Exactly. I really think that the statophobia that permeates both the left and right is the central sickness of American (and not just American) political ideology.
--- On Thu, 9/24/09, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> >From that point of view, you need a strong instituion
> that can enforce
> redistributive policies as well as rights (i.e positive
> rights, as there is
> no such thing as a negative right such as "freedom from" -
> it is always the
> "capacity to".) Afaik, the state is only
> institution that is capable of
> doing that. Without such an instituion any society,
> no matter how
> egalitarian, would almost certainly quickly be hijacked by
> warlords,
> profiteers, priests and assorted demagogues manipulating
> the masses to their
> own benefit (Hobbes had this one right.)