Government is force - nothing more. People state this as if it's some obvious truth, and it makes no sense to me. My statement would be: Government is a mecha

Government is force - nothing more. People state this as if it's some obvious truth, and it makes no sense to me. My statement would be: Government is a mechanism which we, as a group, have decided should handle certain functions of society. It's the logical extension of a group of people in the jungle deciding "you know what, it would be awesome if we got together and built a trail between all our huts so we can visit each other." Part of that agreement might be "hey, when these barbarians show up we should all protect each other", but to arbitrarily say that the only purpose of government is those kinds of agreements I think speaks to a very warped sense of community.