We ought not to demonize a single gang member, and we ought not to romanticize a single gang.
Greg BoyleRead
We should distinguish at this point between "government" and "state" ... A government is the consensual organization by which we adjudicate disputes, defend our rights, and provide for certain common needs ... A state on the other hand, is a coercive organization asserting or enjoying a monopoly over the use of physical force in some geographic area and exercising power over its subjects.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote differentiates between 'government' as a consensual entity and 'state' as a coercive power.
David Boaz's quote emphasizes the distinction between government and state. While a government is formed by the consent of the people to manage disputes and provide services collectively, a state is portrayed as an entity that wields power coercively, maintaining control over individuals in a specific territory through the use of force. This differentiation invites a deeper reflection on our understanding of political authority and the nature of power in society.
Themes
GovernmentStatePowerAuthorityCoercionConsent
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about political philosophy, this quote can illustrate the fundamental differences in governance concepts.
Similar quotes
Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.
Mahatma GandhiRead
The tradition of nonviolence, optimism, concern for the individual, and unconditional compassion that developed in Tibet is the culmination of a slow inner revolution, a cool one, hard to see, that began 2,500 years ago with the Buddha's insight about the end of suffering. What I have learned from these people has forever changed my life, and I believe their culture contains an inner science particularly relevant to the difficult time in which we live.
Robert ThurmanRead
For the rest, they shall represent the other Free Peoples of the World: Elves, Dwarves, and Men, Legolas shall be for the Elves; and Gimli son of Gloin for the Dwarves. They are willing to go at least to the passes of the Mountains, and maybe beyond. For Men you shall have Aragorn son of Arathorn, for the Ring of Isildur concerns him closely.
J. R. R. TolkienRead
All my life I have been passionately interested in monomaniacs of any kind, people carried away by a single idea. The more one limits oneself, the closer one is to the infinite; these people, as unworldly as they seem, burrow like termites into their own particular material to construct, in miniature, a strange and utterly individual image of the world.
Stefan ZweigRead
The discovery of personal whiteness among the world's peoples is a very modern thing - a nineteenth and twentieth century matter, indeed. The ancient world would have laughed at such a distinction.
W. E. B. Du BoisRead