Government Versus the Mafia

George Monbiot wrote a couple of years back:


...the outcome of both market fundamentalism and anarchism, if applied universally, is identical. The anarchists associate with the oppressed, the market fundamentalists with the oppressors. But by eliminating the state, both remove such restraints as prevent the strong from crushing the weak. Ours is not a choice between government and no government. It is a choice between government and the mafia."


I really like the way government is viewed here, as a restrainer of violence.