# Red button or blue button dilemma

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-button-or-blue-button-dilemma/1024041>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 16, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-button-or-blue-button-dilemma/1024041 "2025-10-16T22:59:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 294

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-button-or-blue-button-dilemma/1024041/294 "2025-10-21T18:37:17Z")

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> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#):
>
> > [@robby](#):
> >
> > And the only reason we have a functioning civilization is because there is indeed a state monopoly on violence…
> 
> I do not understand this sentence. Unless I’m mis-understanding, it seems the opposite is true.

Have you never heard the term “state [monopoly on violence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence)”? The [state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_(polity)) (in the form of law enforcement officers) is the only entity permitted to employ violence to keep the peace.

Indeed, per the Widpedia article, [Max Weber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber) in his essay _[Politics as a Vocation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_as_a_Vocation)_ (1919) stated that the monopoly on violence is the defining conception of the state.

If I have a dispute with my neighbor, I can’t legally use violence to resolve the dispute. That includes family feuds and duels.

If you lose the state, you lose this check, and you lose civilization. That’s why after the Roman Empire collapsed, Western Europe devolved into a bunch of warring tribes.

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