imnothere: Come to EMPIRE, ss48. We're a militarily weak alliance but that's how I try to rule it. Works well enough so far.

Boleslav: Nobody else has attempted as yet to answer the challenge, but if you don't mind, I'd like to take a stab at it.

Government exists for a single purpose: to restrict the rights of those within its power. Sometimes it can restrict them in positive ways ("You do not have the right to kill people.") and sometimes in negative ("A yellow-coded curfew is now in effect. Thank you for your cooperation.") but most often inefficiently ("You must pay more taxes so we can construct a larger tax collection and wealth redistribution structure.").

Every government is a tyrant, regardless of its origin. A lack of government is arguably worse (since nobody's trying to keep folks from killing me at whim, for example). The only question from this practical perspective is the flavor of tyrrany one desires.

Now, having stated an uncomfortable truth as baldly (and admittedly negatively) as practicable, I'd like to point out something positive.

Humanity needs to be governed, and we have to be involved in the choices that face us. Fortunately, we're well-equipped to do just that. We've been granted intelligence and a degree of wisdom; we can read history and thereby learn from the mistakes (and the all-too-rare successes) of the past. Any of us that can find this forum can exercise free thought and a bit of free speech.

We have the tools we need. Let's use them to build the best world we can, both in our choice of government and in our immediate surroundings.