How the State is Unnatural

My latest at the Partial Observer. Excerpt:

But most people are not libertarians. Most have inherited the cultural beliefs that make the today's State possible. As a people, we wish for the State to be the highest expression of our values, and to wipe out - or at least control and contain - everything that poses a threat to them. Some feel threatened by the sex partners of others. Some others feel threatened by the drugs other people take. Still others by the weapons others own. Or by the curriculum taught in home schools and other private schools. Or by the prices at the new discount store. Or by the skin color, language, or religious practices of immigrants. Or by how other countries choose to defend themselves. And they all feel perfectly justified in expecting - demanding - that the State do something about these things. Even though none of them are harmful to anyone.

I insist that my values and preferences become the law of the land, apparently because I'm afraid they would otherwise disappear in the normal course of peaceful human relations. That is the moral equivalent of saying, "I get to eat without working," or "I will take more than I need and waste it" or "I should be able to get high yet enjoy perfect physical health."