Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,
States have always thrived on the fear of the taxpayers, and states have always justified their existence in part on the idea that without the state, we’d all be overrun by barbarians, or murdered by our neighbors. Charles Tilly, a historian of the state, frequently noted that the modern state as we know it, was born out of war, and was created to wage war. War and the state are inseparable.