I’ve been thinking about the word state.
Not the flag.
Not the buildings.
Not the men behind desks.
The word itself.
A state is a condition.
A way things are, for a time.
It is not a person.
It does not remember you.
It does not care.
It simply applies.
How It First Appears
Some people meet the state as a helper.
It arrives early.
It pays for things.
It smooths the road.
It makes life feel lighter.
For them, the state feels generous. Almost friendly. Like a great hand that keeps refilling the cup.
Others meet it differently.
As forms.
As rules.
As delays.
As a distant voice saying no.
Both experiences are real.
Both are temporary.
The Error
The mistake is believing the state has a nature.
That it is kind.
That it is cruel.
It is neither.
The state is not a being.
It is a condition applied to circumstances.
When the circumstances change, the condition changes.
That is all.
When Your Life Changes State
There comes a time when your own life shifts.
You earn more.
You move.
You age.
Your family changes shape.
Nothing dramatic needs to happen.
And yet the tone changes.
What once flowed toward you slows.
What once helped now measures.
What once supported now calculates.
People say the state has turned against them.
It hasn’t.
They are simply no longer in the same state.
The Gates
The state works like a series of gates.
If this, then that.
If not, then something else.
Denmark makes this easy to see.
There are supports that apply at certain phases of life — for children, for education, for housing — and there is taxation that applies at others. Under the right inputs, the flows can be substantial. Life can feel buoyant. Even generous.
Then one input changes.
Income.
Residence.
Age.
Status.
The gate flips.
The same machinery produces a different outcome.
No anger.
No memory.
No apology.
Just logic.
From Supported to Supplying
This is the moment many find hardest.
When they are no longer carried, but counted.
Benefits stop.
Obligations begin.
The tone sharpens.
People look for a reason.
There is none.
The state did not decide anything.
It recalculated.
Why This Hurts
We are taught stories instead of mechanics.
That the state cares.
That it protects.
That it provides.
Sometimes it does.
But only while the conditions hold.
The state does not see people.
It sees categories.
Fall inside them and life feels warm.
Fall outside and it feels cold.
Both are impersonal.
Seeing It Clearly
Once you understand this, much anger falls away.
You stop arguing with the weather.
You stop pleading with the tide.
You position yourself instead.
You learn when to sail.
When to anchor.
When to move on.
An Odyssean Ending
I do not see the state as an enemy.
I do not see it as a saviour.
I see it as a sea.
Sometimes calm.
Sometimes rough.
Always indifferent.
A man who mistakes the sea for a home will drown.
A man who learns its moods may cross it many times.
Odysseus did not curse the water.
He read it.
He lost ships.
He lost years.
He lost companions.
But he kept his hand on the helm.
Home, when it came, was not given.
It was reached.
And the mistake was never the journey.
The mistake was believing the waters would always be kind.