the basic problem with the notion of government is displayed in the "massive show of force." only it can do that. but even worse than that, only it can subject you to the indignity of using your own resources to intimidate and/or shoot you. surely it is occurring to someone this evening in libya or or iran or china as the helicopter gunship riddles his mom's twitching corpse with bullets that he paid for himself that maybe this wasn't the very best idea we ever had as a species. we are all in a position where that can happen to us at any time, where people stand over us with a massive slaughter-machine at their disposal, funded by our ourselves. oops!