ABSTRACT
Communes and other alternative communities find their safety in the existence of the state and its ability to maintain the public peace. They take their right to security for granted, in contrast to the egalitarian communities they emulate. People who lived in small face-to-face communities with no ultimate authority to which to appeal believed themselves exposed to the violence of their neighbors, and sometimes were. Self-restraint under provocation and vigilance to restrain kin and other associates were seen as essential in the face of the demands of the strong or the covert malice of hidden envy.
