Khashoggi and the State

This Khashoggi murder is fascinating. It is, on its face, a classic example of the problem with the State: The State, as an entity, has qualities that are in opposition to the individuals who compose it. And, it is encountered by outsiders in the same way. No American reading this story would conclude anything other than the Saudis involved--agents of the State--were savage, cruel and heartless. It is reasonable to assume that such a generality would apply to the State itself. But the State is also many other things, some things very important to us, things that would make us sacrifice our concern for the individual.

In the 1940s, Stalin was our ally. Our crucial ally.

That compromise is the very essence of the State. And it is the very problem with giving to the State individual hopes and aspirations as the State and the individual are never a compound, they are an amalgam, an alloy, where the individual qualities are preserved. The notion that the State and the individual are one in the same is the silly utopia of the collectivist and the black dream of the fascist.