What is the State?
What are its characteristics?
How does it behave?
What other entities are it like?
Knowing what we know, what can we safely assume?

With an animal we would ask things like:
What kind of skin or covering does it have?
What kind of body does it have? (segmented, cephalopod, vertebrate, etc)
What does it consume?
How does it reproduce?

The State is not like an animal.
Two closer comparisons:
1.	An ant colony.
2.	An illness.
(a)	A mental disorder
(b)	A viral infection
That which drives the State is similar to that which drives an ant colony. The ants act as if instructed, yet there is no instructor. Although governments have centralized leadership the State doesn’t. The State is not like the colony in the sense that the State learns and seems self-aware whereas the colony only adapts to environmental stimuli and follows behavior best suited to maintaining the health of the colony. But the State at times seems self-destructive and has very little regard for its individual contributors.

The myth of the State infects the mind of humans like a psychological disorder. It seems to be an anxiety based belief and contains characteristics similar to a generalized anxiety disorder with unsubstantiated fear driven tendencies similar to a phobic disorder. The myth of the State also induces a type of mood disorder similar to bipolar disorder, causing people to osculate between feelings of defeat, despair, and helplessness, to almost uncontrolled excitement. The two faces of victims of the State are defeat/obedience and euphoria/revolution. Individuals infected by the State may also show signs of paranoid schizophrenia including delusions of persecution, grandeur, or both. They may become constantly afraid because they are convinced that others are plotting against them. They may seek retaliation against imagined enemies. Or they may imagine themselves as kinds of super-humans, better than other humans associated with a different locality, possessing a slightly different appearance, or having a different status in society.

The State feeds on devotion. The host becomes ever increasingly dependent on the State and therefore ever increasingly devoted to the continuance of the State. The State grows stronger as the host becomes more and more convinced of its necessity. As the State becomes more and more abusive the host mimics the victim in an abusive spousal relationship, blaming itself for the increasing violence. This behavior is very similar to the well noted Stockholm Syndrome.

Belief in the State spreads by invasion and direct contact. Like a virus, the State is incapable of producing anything on its own. It must have a host to accomplish any task. The State is not self-contained. It depends entirely on its host. The State doesn't always grow uncontrollably. Sometimes it stays relatively stable for long periods of time. But such a manifestation of the State is always susceptible to assimilation by a growing State. The growing State is identified by its tendency toward war and war preparations and its host is most vulnerable to the overall myth when active war is engaged. Therefore war is the condition the State always desires. As continuing war is engaged, the above noted anxiety/phobic and mood disorders reach their peak and at times give the illusion of threatening the State itself. However the State has adapted to this flaw and plays the human tendency toward revolution by offering the existing government as the sacrificial lamb, while preserving the myth of the State. Everything is blamed on the old government and its cronies and a new government, still State based, simply replaces the old.

From Doug Casey:
There are seven characteristics I can think of that define a sociopath, although I'm sure the list could be extended.

1    Sociopaths completely lack a conscience or any capacity for real regret about hurting people. Although they pretend the opposite.
2    Sociopaths put their own desires and wants on a totally different level from those of other people. Their wants are incommensurate. They truly believe their ends justify their means. Although they pretend the opposite.
3    Sociopaths consider themselves superior to everyone else, because they aren't burdened by the emotions and ethics others have – they're above all that. They're arrogant. Although they pretend the opposite.
4    Sociopaths never accept the slightest responsibility for anything that goes wrong, even though they're responsible for almost everything that goes wrong. You'll never hear a sincere apology from them.
5    Sociopaths have a lopsided notion of property rights. What's theirs is theirs, and what's yours is theirs too. They therefore defend currency inflation and taxation as good things.
6    Sociopaths usually pick the wrong target to attack. If they lose their wallet, they kick the dog. If 16 Saudis fly planes into buildings, they attack Afghanistan.
7    Sociopaths traffic in disturbing news, they love to pass on destructive rumors and they'll falsify information to damage others.