Violence is the root of all civilization

Rules matter only if rule-breakers cannot simply overpower everyone else. A government claims an area, forbids citizens from using violence against one another or against it, and reserves the capacity to enforce that prohibition. This is the monopoly on legitimate violence: not constant brutality, but an asymmetry strong enough to make private coercion a losing strategy.

That is why apparently nonviolent goods—peace, meritocracy, freedom, cooperation—are not first principles in this account. Each depends on someone being able to stop people who would seize property, attack rivals, or ignore collective rules. Much of civilization therefore operates through deterrence: the expected consequence does the work before force becomes necessary.

The argument establishes that enforceable order needs centralized coercive capacity; it does not establish that every government use of violence is legitimate, or that violence alone creates a good society. Force can preserve peace and freedom only insofar as the institution wielding it actually enforces those goods rather than violating them.