The Illusion of Power

Men cannot run around like wild beasts, trampling each other underfoot, without imminently endangering their own survival. For though men can survive on their own, without the company of other men, in this manner do they become easy prey to the wilderness their hearts long for

To thrive, face the violence of the tempest, the voracity of the wolf, the brutalities of winter, must men band together, utilizing their collective wits by the grace of Organisation

Such congress, precarious as it may be, owing to the barbarity of men, is possible but only by sublimating such impulses as are natural to them yet harmful to their organisation

Therefore must men create structures that pitch them against one another, carefully balancing their antipodal desires into a fragile cooperation that both satisfies their need for sovereignty as well as serving their objectives

Delegates of the Constitutional Convention

And herein lies the genesis of the State, that supra-individual entity whose power derives exclusively from the consent of men and whose singular raison-d’être is the protection of men by means of such organisation as finds expression in Law

The State is hence an inherently frail creature, supported only by the capricious adherence of near savages to the notion of organisation, its survival tethered to the clarity of that value gained by surrendering one’s freedoms

Yet here must men tread carefully, for though the collective nature of the State suggests a transcendence of its relationship with men, its legitimacy at any point remains subject to the sovereignty of men. And though it may seem that the State, living beyond the years of any generation, gains the power to dictate to men the manner of their living, its existence continues to be ultimately subject to the will of living men

But how, the reader may enquire, does a man remain sovereign, having surrendered his freedoms willingly?

The answer lies in the fact that surrendering any given freedom did never constitute an abdication of sovereignty but merely a temporary submission to the State, driven in its entirety by the benefits offered the individual by said State’s disposition. In other words, men ever only trade freedoms with the State in exchange for a given benefit. No sooner does the benefit…