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When she goes to fight Zion, she literally gets her baton, knife, and gun, and goes "this won't help, but I feel better when I have them.

(no spoilers pls)

It's been fun, but I'm getting a very interesting read on the series' overall philosophy and I'm mostly typing this to put my thoughts in order.

There's a theory of government that basically says, the only part of government that matters is "Having a monopoly on the use of force". Everything else derives from that and matters far less to the govt. And I think a lot of the major conflicts in Worm are because of that.

And the thing about that theory is that the govt has to maintain their monopoly. And if people aren't having their basic needs met(including food etc but ALSO the need to be free of violence), then people will resort to any means necessary, including violence, in order to get what they need. So it's in the govt's best interests to keep people from getting so desperate that they resort to violence, since that will cause other people to resort to violence, leading to a chain reaction and societal collapse if things get out of hand.

So the issue with Taylor is that she believes the govt should be meeting people's basic needs, and has learned repeatedly over her life(childhood and time as a villain both) that the govt can't or won't. So she has taken over trying to do that, including through violence. And then is shocked when the govt comes around saying "you can't just hurt people to get what you want". Because all the govt officials/heroes she interacts care about is "who's using force in a way that challenges our monopoly".