A New Theory of State Formation

Brad Spangler http://www.bradspangler.com/blog/archives/296#comments
speculates about possible connections between the domestication of the cat and the rise of the state. The state came with sedentary agricultural subsistence strategies, as did the domesticated cat as a guardian of granaries from rodents. Exposure to certain cat-borne pathogens is associated with schizophrenia; therefore, the madness of statism may have originally been brought on by proximity to cats.

This looks all but ironclad as a theory, except that I would put less emphasis on the feline etiology of psychoses. Rather, control of the cats led to the state. Instead of a Hydraulic Theory of state formation, I propose the Fluffy Theory of state formation. Any aggressive fellow or gang who could monopolize the cats would have a stranglehold on power. Without the cats, the rodents eat your surplus, and you starve. With the cats, your surplus is safe from rodents. Having a ruler is a small price to pay for access to the cats.

Later, you realize that cats are not that hard to attract and to keep. Heck, you can’t get rid of them fast enough. But by then, the rulers are firmly entrenched, and you can’t remember that you ever got along without them.