When we use a tool in everyday life, it usually remains a detached instrument under my control and activated only when, where, and how I decide. … In contrast, conceptual innovations often stick, escape our control and become part of reality itself. Once Hobbes invents the idea of the state this idea can come into contact with real social forces with unforeseeable results. The tool develops a life of its own, and can become an inextricable part of the fabric of life itself.

p. 49. - Philosophy and Real Politics (2008)