Many of my friends think of the state as stupid, and therefore an easy foe for determined dissidents to defeat. I have a different view.
For one thing, the state has always had ready resort to those with cutting-edge expertise in the private sector, from the days when it hired Eli Whitney to manufacture muskets with interchangeable parts to our own time, when it hires Oracle, Microsoft, and a host of other high-tech companies to help it spy on us. History has shown that no task is so revolting and criminal that the state cannot attract private contractors to carry it out.
Moreover, even if the private-sector geniuses refuse to sign up, the state can, whenever push comes to shove, simply send its goons to smash your door and haul you off to one of its dungeons. Such actions, especially if taken on a wide scale, have a marvelously educational effect on dissidents and would-be dissidents. Because the state has the capacity to raise enormous amounts of money and to bamboozle the great mass of the public, it can employ these two tactics — outsourcing of operations and use of raw force — pretty much as it finds optimal. It is a mistake to underestimate the state simply because its visible face consists of seemingly idiotic politicians.
