We (you) are the state.
We are the arbitrators of collective affairs. Without us there is anarchy and no possibility of enduring happiness. The state is our collective voice, our contribution to the definition of a life of liberty in this shared world.
Our individual pursuits of happiness and their resulting successes and failure are indirectly connected. Your great wealth is intimately tied to the opportunities we the state collectively provide. Your failure to acquire economic security is intimately tied to the amount of opportunities we the state choose not to provide.
We share a responsibility for these outcomes and deserve a piece of their consequences. A state isolated from such deliberations does not make a society. Without society, life’s worth barely measures beyond instinctual barbarism.
-Kent Bausman, 2022
Leave a Reply