There are a lot of problems with the catchphrase. Too many to unpack.
One of them is that this "men with guns" phrase is often deployed to plant some kind of "government over-reach" meme around the most trivial of adult transactions, like paying parking fines and property taxes.
It betrays a childish political naivete. The reason I say it's childish is that it's egocentric, as if the concerns of the speaker (to park where they want, to own large plots of land, that abut other people's land, without any consequence or restraint) were the only ones in existence.
That house is served by roads, protected by police and fire services, and must be in compliance with various perfectly reasonable regulations (like brush clearance). That costs money.
And last, you know where your phrase, "All power comes from the barrel of a gun", comes from, right? Good old chairman Mao, one of the top guys in the 20th century rogues gallery. In a democracy, with functioning courts, this saying is more hyperbole.
One of them is that this "men with guns" phrase is often deployed to plant some kind of "government over-reach" meme around the most trivial of adult transactions, like paying parking fines and property taxes.
It betrays a childish political naivete. The reason I say it's childish is that it's egocentric, as if the concerns of the speaker (to park where they want, to own large plots of land, that abut other people's land, without any consequence or restraint) were the only ones in existence.
That house is served by roads, protected by police and fire services, and must be in compliance with various perfectly reasonable regulations (like brush clearance). That costs money.
And last, you know where your phrase, "All power comes from the barrel of a gun", comes from, right? Good old chairman Mao, one of the top guys in the 20th century rogues gallery. In a democracy, with functioning courts, this saying is more hyperbole.
I think a more relevant notion is that the state is the entity that has a monopoly on violence (due to Max Weber, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence).