And this is the perennial genius of the State: it not only seizes power through deception, but maintains it through the willing self-deception of its subjects. The bamboozle becomes not merely a passing fraud, but the very foundation of political legitimacy. Once the public has been conditioned to equate the State’s coercion with social order, they will defend their own shackles and denounce anyone who points to the lock.

The State is not an unfortunate accident that can be corrected by ‘better men’ in office; it is a permanent machinery of plunder and control, inherently hostile to truth and liberty. To grant it power, no matter how small, is to grant it the means to grow, to entrench the bamboozle ever deeper—until, at last, the parasite destroys the host.