LIVING IN THE STATE SOCIETY, VARIOUS ESSAYS
by Derrick A Pike

Freely distributable, but please quote source

THE MOST DANGEROUS FEATURE OF THE STATE

To live in a state is to live in continuous danger for it produces massive
poverty and, in many countries, disease, riots, revolutions and
'conventional' wars. Besides this continuous danger there is the threat of
a greater one that hangs over our heads like the proverbial Sword of
Damocles. To understand why this danger exists, we must understand how
power is distributed in the state. 

	There are massive inequalities of wealth and leisure in the state,
and so people have to be induced by propaganda, enticed by rewards, and
forced by violence to live together in such an unjust way. One or more
rulers exert this control in government. Although a government has all
the power, it delegates its authority to manage day-to-day affairs. Those
immediately below the government have less power than the maximum, those
below again still less, and so on, to some extent, down through society.
Most people in society have no power at all. The state is hierarchical.
Those at the top of the power structure direct the power of all those
below them so that they have complete control of everyone. If there is
more than one ruler at the top of the power hierarchy, the power is
diluted and the excesses of any individual curbed, but if there is only
one ruler, his or her power is unrestricted. 

	There is an ever-present danger in the state because any
individual at the top of the power structure may have the opportunity to
seize all of it. That individual then becomes a dictator, and he or she
can control all the country. People become dictators by being born in the
right bed, by being elected in a democratic parliament, and by seizing
power during a coup. They do not need to be mentally well or moral to
become dictators. Just the reverse, so that most are mad with power and
wicked. Examples are Idi Amin and Pol Pot. 

	At the end of January this year there were memorial services held
to remind us of the terrible deaths that took place in the concentration
camps of Auschwitz and other German towns fifty years ago. These generated
several articles stating that we must be vigilant so that the horror was
not repeated. Some people wanted to know if it were possible for the
horror to happen again. Unfortunately, the power structure of the state
society makes it possible to happen anytime. So the answer to the
question, "Coul d there be another holocaust?" is "Yes, and most likely,
there will be." Hitler could destroy one and a half million people in the
most horrible way because he could use the state pattern of society. 

	Because dictators and governments can control everyone, they will
behave in a very wicked way if it suits them. To retain their power, they
have brutal and repressive regimes that imprison without trial, torture,
and kill dissidents. If they want to exterminate a particular race or
religious group, they will do it. No government of any kind has any
compunction about killing millions of people. In Britain, as in other
countries, we do not know our real rulers, but they have, without our
consent agreed to the development of the atomic bomb and made war against
the Germans, the Faulklanders, and the Iranians. They decide whether we
shall arm, with what, and by how much. Millions of us may have to suffer
and die in an atomic war or in a holocaust of one kind or another.

	We can protect ourselves from our continuous danger and from
periods of special danger only by creating a free society where people
cooperate with one another of their own free will. We cannot change the
behaviour of governments and so we must protect ourselves by discarding
them. 

GOVERNMENTS CREATE THE SOCIAL EVILS, NOT US

According to governments, the people themselves are responsible for all
the social evils. Governments design their propaganda to give the
impression that they are standing apart from society, like a benevolent
father, always ready to give help when we get ourselves into trouble.

	That is why we hear that children are not being educated properly
because the teachers do not know their job and because they waste their
time spreading liberal ideas. We hear that when people are poor and
unemployed it is because they are lazy and do not look for work. And we
are given to understand that there are crime and violence because some
people are wicked and because parents spoil their children by not giving
them enough discipline. Governments then appear to be dealing with these
evils by changing the National Curriculum, by giving us social security
money, and by putting criminals in prison. They perform this massive con
trick, safe in the knowledge that most people will not realise that
children are not educated properly because the school funding is too low
and the National Curriculum badly designed. People will not see that they
are poor because the economy of the state and capitalism are inefficient
and money is wasted on the state and on giving the privileged riches they
do not deserve. Everyone will accept that there is crime because people
are wicked and not because the state gives us no real purpose in life and
no fair distribution of wealth. 

	Governments blame the people for the starvation and poverty that
exists in the Third World. According to them, people starve because they
breed too quickly. There are too many people to feed on the world's
limited resources. They say that unless they enforce birth control, people
would suffer more than ever. This is a lie. People starve because they are
forced to make war and because they are exploited by the capitalists and
the World Bank. They starve because governments cannot organise any
venture that serves the people. They cannot organise the fair production
and distribution of food. 

	The idea of their remoteness is never more firmly instilled by
governments than in time of war. How often are we told that Churchill
saved us and lead us to victory in World War 2? Saved us indeed! We would
never have been in trouble were it not for Churchill and his ilk. 

	We will never rid ourselves of poverty and war unless we realised
that we have these social conditions because we have governments.
Governments are in charge. They make the laws and they enforce them with
the violence of their police, so the society we have is the result of
their rule. Governments cannot evade responsibility by saying the social
evils are our own fault, although they will do so as long as we allow them
to exist and be in control. Left alone we shall not produce the social
evils and so we must see to it that there are no governments to interfere
with us. We must see to it that we rule ourselves. 



LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO WASTE

While suffering a long and painful illness (and probably getting older!),
I realised more than ever that life is short. I had not felt the presence
of the Grim Reaper, but one evening I caught a glimpse of the shadow cast
by his scythe. It was enough to make me assess the value of my life. 

	Because I place happiness above wealth, I had not made much money,
but my life so far had been very interesting with several different
occupations and certain successes. As a designer, I had helped develop an
object that stayed in use for many years; I h ad started a viable
business; I had taught subjects that interested me; and I had done much
else. But looking back I realised that, apart from my personal life,
nothing seemed satisfying, purposeful, or of lasting value - except -
well, more than once, I did save a life. There was nothing especially to
my credit in this because it is comparatively easy for a large, muscular,
six foot man to rescue a struggling teenager from a river or lift a woman
from danger. And the other events were equally mundane. Nonetheless, it
did mean that but for me some people were alive who would otherwise be
dead. Then I remembered that as a young man, during WW2, I had refused to
stay in a reserved occupation because I would have been helping to kill my
fellow human beings.  The memory gave me extreme satisfaction. 

	I realised that no one who has created life, who has saved a life,
or who has refused to take a life has lived his or her life in vain. 

	We cannot all be a mother producing children, and not all of us
are fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to save
someone from a fatal accident, but all of us can refuse to kill or help
kill. 

So because life is short (your own and others), young men and women should
realise that if they do not want to waste the time they have, they should
become conscientious objectors. Conscientious objectors do not kill or
injure for the state and because they do not, they help destroy it. They
help destroy the state which is the cause of all suffering. When they grow
older they will realise that it was the best thing they ever did. 

