The header is taken from a book by Albert Jay Nock,
who was a classical liberal anarchist (taking the dictum
"that which governs least, governs best" to its logical
conclusion.) I think Thoreau could qualify as such an
anarchist as well. This sort of anarchism should be
distinguished fromthe socialist anarchism of Bakunin,
Proudhon, and their ilk.

You don't have to be a utopian or quasi-utopian anarchist
to appreciate the attitude towards the State expressed
in the header, however. The State, in its primitive form,
was invariably a despotic slave-holding form, intent
primarily on conquest and the exploitation of labor.
That it has evolved to something more domesticated doesn't
detract from its essential nature as the presumed monopoly
on force in a geographical area. Force is what the State
is about. It is essentially a protectionist organization,
which promises to keep us safe from Hollywood-style
excitin' home invaders, as well as invasions by other,
presumably worse, States.

Of course, we owe the creation of civilization itself to
the State as well. Face it, all of it was created by
slavery and despotism. So our relationship with the
State is not entirely as a host to a parasite, but is
more symbiotic than that. States that bleed their
hosts completely dry without offering anything back
wind up killing themselves. States suffer from a
kind of natural selection too.

In any case, there are those who suffer from the
misapprehension that the State is Us, We are the
State. That can never be true. The State depends
on us, but it is not us. The State is not even The
People. It is not even society. The State that
encompasses an entire society is a State that
is bleeding its host dry.