McMaken walks through Murray Rothbard’s 1965 essay “Anatomy of the State” (first published in the Rampart Journal of Individualist Thought), arguing that the state is not “us” and not a manifestation of the popular will, but a distinct, parasitic organization defined by Max Weber’s standard formulation: a monopoly on force in a territory that funds itself through coercion rather than voluntary exchange. Drawing on Franz Oppenheimer’s split between the “economic means” (production and exchange) and the “political means” (seizure), Rothbard frames the state as a wiser parasite than a common criminal because it keeps its host alive and productive, and it preserves itself less through raw violence than through propaganda manufactured by an intellectual class that trades market insecurity for secure state patronage. The essay’s final claims are that constitutional and international-law limits fail because the state becomes the judge of its own powers, that the state punishes crimes against itself (treason, desertion) more zealously than crimes against private citizens, and that history is a race between coercive “state power” and productive “social power.”
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The state is not “us”: Rothbard rejects the Rousseauian “general will” idea that democratic government reflects the people, arguing that even if 70% voted to murder the remaining 30% it would still be murder, not voluntary suicide. McMaken adds that only a fraction of voters ever back the current regime, making the “we owe it to ourselves” framing ideological camouflage.
Oppenheimer’s two means and the parasite distinction: Wealth is acquired either through the “economic means” (homesteading, labor, voluntary exchange) or the “political means” (one-sided seizure by force), and the state monopolizes the latter. Unlike a highway robber who may kill his victim, the state is a smarter parasite that keeps taxpayers alive and productive enough to be robbed of 10, 20, or 30% repeatedly.
Intellectuals as the state’s propaganda arm: Rothbard argues the state needs intellectuals to manufacture consent and rewards them with secure income and prestige in exchange for opinion-molding, since the market for intellectual work is insecure. McMaken extends this to Silicon Valley figures who forge bonds with the CIA and “deep state,” noting that tax revenue lets the state simply buy smart people.
How the state evades limits: Constitutional restraints fail whenever the state becomes the final judge of its own legitimacy, as with the US Supreme Court, after which central power only grows. Rothbard cites John C. Calhoun as too “timid” for grasping only that established state governments—not individuals or voluntary substate groups—could exercise veto power, concluding that only power checks power.
What the state fears and total war: The state most fears existential threats—conquest or revolution—so the US targets weak, distant countries like Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan that cannot strike back. McMaken argues the FBI lavishes resources prosecuting January 6 participants and Waco/Ruby Ridge-style targets while dragging its feet on private-victim crimes like the gymnastics doctor case, confirming Rothbard’s claim that the state punishes crimes against itself most intensely.
