The State Is A Glass Ceiling

[Lightfiend]

Trying to explain the State to people is a difficult task and it’s not a task made any easier by the usual conflation of State with government. Perhaps this is another trick of Statists since, by equating the State to government, they can argue that the necessity of government requires a State. But what is a State if it is not “government?” The simplest definition I can give would be: “a State is a fiction reinforced by law.” Allow me to explain.

There exists a natural hierarchy of sorts. Within various fields of study and professions, some are more apt than others. This is even more true of inter-professional relationships. This seem to be fairly indisputable. My background in economics surely makes me a relative authority in the field when compared to someone just starting to think about the subject. But when compared to even a college freshman physics major, I’d be the relative novice having forgotten virtually everything except for a couple laws and equations from high school. Accepting the hierarchy is really just about accepting the diversity of aptitudes among humans. Ascension up the hierarchy is dependent on perhaps various factors that are arguable, but might generally include intelligence, physical strength, amount of effort or time spent practicing, and knowledgeability. That is to say that there are some people who are the “best” and some who are the “worst” at whatever it is we are talking about — everyone is categorically “unequal” because they all have unequal genetics and experiences (even if they may largely be very similar).

When all these professions and individuals are conglomerated into some sort of collective identity, society, for example, it can be illustrated as a pyramid with those who are “best” at “being human” on top and those who are “worst” on the bottom. The reason the hierarchy has a wider base than top is due to the way information is conveyed. When a person determines how to do something, the information can’t be disseminated easily and completely. For example, if a person or a couple people figure out how cure cancer, they have to teach that information to others and those who are taught the information will likely have problems learning it. Everything has a learning curve, and as such, everything has a hierarchy — someone must teach for someone to be taught...

Source: "The State Is A Glass Ceiling"