# Chapter VII: The Inevitable Contradiction of State Power explained — The Kingdom of God Is Within You > Chapter companion for The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy. ## What happens Tolstoy argues that the justifications for state violence and military service have become obsolete in modern times. He contends that governments no longer protect citizens but instead brutalize society, hinder progress, and exploit the working class. Universal military service reveals the inner contradiction of the social contract: it demands sacrifices that destroy the very security and advantages it promises. Tolstoy concludes that state power is maintained not for defense but to oppress subjects, and that the growing consciousness of this truth will lead to liberation. ## Themes in this chapter ### Hypocrisy of Society Tolstoy exposes the hypocrisy of governments that claim to protect citizens while actually brutalizing them and hindering progress. ### Freedom from Human Power The chapter argues that state power is unnecessary and harmful, and that true freedom comes from rejecting governmental violence. ### Inevitability of Moral Progress Tolstoy suggests that the contradiction of universal military service will inevitably lead humanity to recognize the need for a new, nonviolent social order. ## Character check-ins ### Leo Tolstoy Author and narrator; presents a radical critique of state power and military service. ### Caprivi German chancellor cited for openly stating that army under-officers are needed to fight socialism, revealing the true purpose of military force. ## Key lines > the activity of the governments, with their morality which has fallen behind the common level, with their cruel methods of punishments, of prisons, of hard labor, of gallows, of guillotines, rather contributes to the brutalization of the masses than to the softening of their manners, and so rather to the increase than to the diminution of the number of violators. Government actions, with their outdated morality and harsh punishments, actually make people more brutal and increase crime rather than reduce it. _Tolstoy argues that state violence backfires, making society more violent._ > The establishment of the universal military service is like what would happen if a man were to brace up a dilapidated house: the walls bend inwards⁠—supports are put up; the ceiling is sagging down⁠—other supports are put up; boards hang down between the supports⁠—some more supports are put up. A point is finally reached when the supports indeed hold the house together, but it is impossible to live in the house because there are so many supports. Universal military service is like propping up a crumbling house with so many supports that it becomes uninhabitable; it destroys the very security it is meant to preserve. _Metaphor illustrating the absurdity of military conscription._ > Caprivi only said in the hearing of all what everybody knows, though it is carefully concealed from the nations; he explained why guards of Swiss and Scotchmen were hired out to French kings and Popes, and why in Russia they carefully shuffle up the recruits in such a way that the regiments which are located in the center are made up of recruits from the outlying districts, while the regiments in the outlying districts are completed by soldiers from the center of Russia. Caprivi openly admitted what everyone knows but is hidden: armies are used to control the population, not just defend against foreign enemies. _Tolstoy uses Caprivi's statement to reveal the true purpose of military force._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kingdom_of_god_is_within_you_se/chapters/vii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kingdom_of_god_is_within_you_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kingdom_of_god_is_within_you_se/chapters