In the anthropology of Zinoviev, man is a "social animal", the mind is secondary to the social. Zinoviev considered the question of the primacy of society or the individual to be naive and outdated; in the modern world, man is a derivative of the social position, a set of social functions. Man is not necessarily evil by nature, but is associated with evil, he has both social and antisocial traits. This dialectic gives rise to the need for a power hierarchy, for domination and submission, in relations of domination and humiliation. A society without hierarchy and power is impossible. With the hypothetical disappearance of the state, many people would lose their main need – to enjoy the pleasure of causing violence to others – and would again build a system of power: society is a machine for maximizing dominance. Zinoviev adhered to the essence of the traditional model of power as a necessary evil, but, noted Konstantin Krylov, in an extremely original way reduced two elements of this definition, emphasizing their difference. Power arises from people's need for unity and generates social self-organization, which it subsequently appropriates. The government does not order anything and controls nothing, but, on the contrary, order arises as its restriction. Power is not effective, avoids responsibility, seeks to violence and destruction, to cause harm to the lower ones.