Today, the erosion of civil society has created such a hostile environment for disagreement and so much violence in the streets that some people shake their heads and ask, "Where is the America I grew up in?" And how did this happen? Ernest Hemingway once famously described how his bankruptcy occurred: "Gradually, then suddenly." This is how a civil society collapses: slowly, then suddenly. Unfortunately, the replacement is often a totalitarian state.

This doesn't need to happen. Individuals may feel powerless but, in fact, individuals are the only restorative for civil society because they are the ones who can bind it together by establishing what is called "high trust." A high-trust society is characterized by members who reasonably expect others in the community to treat them fairly, which encourages voluntary association far beyond family bonds or other tight networks.

An example: I live in a rural area where is common to see vegetable stands at the end of long driveways that lead to farmhouses. The unattended stands are stacked with corn, tomatoes, and other produce with a small box in front that reads "pay here." I have done so many times, adding dollars to the accumulation of bills and coins. If there is the occasional theft, I haven't heard of it and the problem is not pervasive enough to shut down the business model. Working on a project with only half-payment in advance is another example of high trust. And the higher the trust, the more prosperous and peaceful a society is likely to be.

Clear definitions of civil society and the state are useful. The book The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically (1908) by the German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer (1864–1943) offers classic definitions. Oppenheimer writes, "I mean by it [the State] that summation of privileges and dominating positions which are brought into being by extra-economic power." By extra-economic power, he means force or threat of force. "I mean by Society," Oppenheimer continues, "the totality of concepts of all purely natural relations and institutions between man and man." He contrasts "the political means" with "the economic means of acquiring wealth and power. The political means (the state) produces nothing and, again, must use force to plunder civil society which uses the economic means or co-operation to produce wealth. Thus, the state is the enemy of society, and one of the ways the state dominates a society that might resist is through civil war; that is, one segment of society is pitted against the other. This allows the state to assume power in the name of restoring peace and ensuring safety.