Myths/government is violence

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The Myth

Freedom is slavery, war is peace, ignorance is strength, and government is violence.

The argument seems to be that government must constantly do bad things in order to govern, therefore government is inherently evil.

The Reality

Government is not inherently violent, however, unless you count the coercive restraint of abusers (a key function of any society) as violence.

While many governments are the proximate cause of much violence, most governments prevent more violence than they cause. A good government would go to great lengths to avoid initiating violence – but it is an acknowledged truth that unequivocally "good" governments are a bit like utopias: we can imagine them, but they are probably not possible.

It is also important to note that no system proposed as an alternative to government could possibly avoid this kind of violence, as refraining from coercing abusers would allow the abusers to commit their own violence.

The only logically possible way in which an accusation of violence would be a valid argument against the idea of government, or even against any particular form of government, is to offer a system which is demonstrably less violent in actual practice (rather than just in theory).

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Reference