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Oscar Grau explains how the state is the ultimate monopoly.
"While the state cannot achieve everything, it can certainly achieve much, because the state is the monopoly of monopolies—the one and only that makes all other monopolies possible. First, the state is the compulsory territorial monopoly of the services of justice (law) and security (order), which, with institutional power to impose property transfers (taxes) for its maintenance, takes by force or threat the final decisions in society. And second, the state is legitimized by opinion (ideology), which reinforces its existence and intrusion in other fields of social life. Thus, to achieve its goals, the state legislates through its jurisdictional monopoly and educates—mind molds—its subjects to alleviate any opposition."
I like to see the image of the state as being a gigantic mosquito plunging a monstrous beak into the body politic and leaving a horrible welt where it sucked out the lifeblood of the people. That is what the state is: a useless, dangerous parasite.
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