Perhaps an inherent aspect of superpower-scale states: if you go to the political or cultural centers, you have to play along with the darker aspects of the game, or you find yourself without the ability to secure the basic necessities. And perhaps only networks with this level of personal domination are capable of creating continent-wide schemes of force. Perhaps it was the same in old Rome, or early modern London, and with the flourishing of mechanized industry, there's now much less starvation in the streets--in places, none at all, even with the population (mostly workers) multiplied tenfold in the last century or so. But the thought persistently recurs that the plan in Philadelphia, Virginia, and Boston a few centuries back was for a considerably lighter yoke and burden vis-a-vis the state.
