The Rise and Fall of Society

In times past, the disposition was to look upon the State as something one had to reckon with, but as a complete outsider. One got along with the State as best as one could, feared or admired it, hoped to be taken in by it and to enjoy its perquisites, or held it at arm's length as an untouchable thing; one hardly thought of the State as the integral of Society. One had to support the State - there was no way of avoiding taxes - and one tolerated its interventions as interventions, not as the warp and woof of life. And the State itself was proud of its position apart from, and above, Society. The present disposition is to liquidate any distinction between State and Society, conceptually or institutionally.