“When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you’re using force. And force, my friends, is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.”

—Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

There is no escape from this uncomfortable reality: power—by means of violent force—is the backing of all laws and of all systems of laws; it is that which determines whom is sovereign, and for how long, and how far his power extends over the will of others.

But why is this worth saying? Because too many advocates of state violence do not understand that it is violence they advocate for. Too many politically engaged individuals proudly wave their tribe’s colors, bang on their drums, and plead to their chieftains to enact their will on their behalf. They ask for the strongman to put power to their plans—after all, they’ve thought them through far in advance and in a more advanced way than any enemy could have possibly contemplated—in fact, if the chieftain just listened to them, the whole nation would be put in order, maybe the whole world—if only they could aim the power of the state at those who won’t participate, then they could force them into cooperation, and then maybe, finally, we’d reach the promise land!

That is their Utopia, or else the path they believe leads to their Utopia—their will embodied by the enforcers of the state with enough layers of obfuscated responsibility that they don’t have to see the blood on their hands. They shall deny this. Perhaps you, dear reader, are denying it now. Perhaps you do not agree that your state advocacy is backed by violence—or, more likely—perhaps you do not care. Liars, the lot of you. Tarantulas. Serpents and hypocrites. Cowards, worst of all.

For no matter how much you decorate the institution with sophisticated trappings, the function of government is to wield the exclusive licence of the initiation of the use of force. Whether such licence ought to be granted is a topic for another discussion; regardless, it is a fact that what makes any sovereign government what it is, is its monopoly on non-consensual violence. Only the state can levy taxes or charge fines. When done by others, it is called theft. Only the state can conduct an arrest. When done by others, it is called kidnapping. Only the state can draft soldiers against their will. When done by others, it is called slavery. Likewise, only the state can execute and wage war. When done by others, it is called murder. No private business can operate like the state. None can require that you buy their product or service, nor can they force your neighbor to buy those self-same services if enough happy customers decide it should be so.

This means that all state action is brought about staring down the barrel of a gun, and it doesn’t matter how you write the law. If a piece of legislation is not enforced, then it is functionally not a law. If the legislation is enforced, but only by a fine, I ask you—what happens if I refuse to pay? Surely, the fine must be enforced as well, over time, after many letters of warning, but inevitably men with guns will need to show up at my front door to arrest me or else somehow seize my property. Well, what happens if I resist? The agents of enforcement must escalate! They cannot lose this confrontation, or else their authority would begin to disintegrate. So they escalate and escalate, slowly if they’re well trained, quickly if not. Either way, it does not matter. For if I am successful at defending my person and property, the force used against me will become deadly—there is no other end! For the sake of the governing system, enforcement of the law must be maintained, or else what power is actually vested in the state?

Therefore, Ye Snakes, know that whenever you call for taxes to be raised, for an object or substance to become contraband, for an ordinance or regulation to be put in place, you are asking for the strongman to do violence on your behalf. You are advocating that those who disagree with you ought to be held at gun point if they refuse to obey. You are saying that what you desire justifies the initiation of violence if you don’t get your way.

The government is a gun which gains its authority by its capacity to intimidate, coerce, and ultimately to eliminate resistance with a bullet, or a noose, or injections, or an electric chair. All else is obfuscation to the benefit of the craven, the tyrannical, and the weak.