Diary of a Bad Year - Opening

One

Strong Opinions
12 September 2005 - 31 May 2006


OI. On the origins of the state

Every account of the origins of the state starts from the premise that "we" - not we the readers but some generic we so wide as to exclude no one - participate in its coming into being. But the fact is that only "we" know - ourselves and the people close to us - are born into the state; and our forebears too were born into the state as far back as we can trace. The state is always there before we are.

A portion of this book is first appeared in The New York Review of Books

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