this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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An anarchist could easily turn this back on you: Do you really think, if you’ve successfully removed the state’s overbearing inclination towards self preservation, that you can really call it a state anymore? Surely after a certain point you’re just calling it such out of a desire to be separate.
Lenin addresses this directly. Historically states are means of oppression of the working class by the ruling class. We smash the state and create something ceases to be the same sort of state, but still is a state. For once the majority suppresses the minority that would wish to exploit. It is a very unique state, but it is still a state as such, for a state is a mechanism of class rule. When there are no longer classes there shall be no state.
This is tautological, a state is a mechanism of class rule and since it’s a mechanism of class rule, it’s a state.
Edit: My point here is that there’s more to the state than merely a mechanism of class rule, because plenty of mechanisms of class rule exist. The state is merely one obvious example.
The state is defined as the monopoly on violence. We agree, it seems.