In fairness, you'd also need to concede that there has never been a single independent village where there was no coercion. Mankind's history is mostly a story

In fairness, you'd also need to concede that there has never been a single independent village where there was no coercion. Mankind's history is mostly a story of how we have related to each other in forced groupings. (Forced by Mother Nature's many threats in the prehistoric past, but still, forced.) So is it necessary that every grouping of man, "must fall", because there exists "coercion" in those groupings? Just as a matter of full disclosure: My own view is that any grouping must fall only when the grouping provides no, or very little, actual benefit to it's constituent members. Western Rome fell when people in Lutecia, Londonus, or even Ravenna were no longer deriving real benefit from being inside the Roman polity. Which arguably was long before Odoacer finally had enough and put an end to the charade.