This is so funny to me because I feel like I'm debating myself. So I feel as if I'm playing devil's advocate. Like I said before I am not really about the use of violence or extreme force. I believe in leading by example and letting the pack follow. I also believe that if you force something on a person, although they may pick up the idea you forced for a while, they will ultimately go back to their original routine when the influence decreases. However, if you use a small amount of force to start the spark of interest..then at that point you will achieve a greater success rate of conversion. Sometimes people have to be forced to look at something or they would have never looked at it at all. Many opportunities are missed because people don't take the extra step to be persistent but not relentless.
But I do not believe in a society where one puts themselves over the community and still "doesn't believe in some are allowed to do what some are not allowed to do." How can I put myself above the community but still say that I care about what everyone else is allowed to do. With that mindset why would you care what anyone in the community did? Or is it just a battle of "well, he did it too" in the the culture.
The Zomia State does not have a written language and there is still division among the people and it is not a happy utopia that you are, to me, describing. From what I researched, it seems that the social building practices and social ties that the community imposes on it's people is what keeps the structure. In one article I read it stated that, "kinship systems are based on overlapping and redundant relationships that create a strong social network and limit the formalization of power." I will concede that these people did leave many different areas to escape other forms of government, but I still believe they are just follow another rule system that forces them to limit power. In my opinion that is just power being used form a different angle. And division is still present in these lands. The people that do the farming in the valleys consider the people in the mountains, of the already treacherous lands, as primitive and living ancestors.
Nothing is perfect, but it is the method of weighing pros and cons that helps the decision making process. If one does not have goal, then what is one living for? Some systems are more goal oriented and others are made for those who want to simply exist. If you think about it, how many times a day do you have to force yourself to do something because you would rather be doing something that's unproductive or against what you had planned for the day?