Balance to the force is the path to a healthy community. That doesn't mean the "no violence" of pacifism, it just means violence only as defense.

But it is easy to fall off the knife edge of balance to the point that you are preemptively attacking others as a means of "defense."

Balance is difficult to maintain in all things. It is hard to stay at the point of voluntary community, which is healthy, and not drift off into the collectivism mind fuck of communism or fascism.

The critical point, as you say, is to keep things voluntary and small. As long as this is present, then society can have moving parts, and with moving parts, it can adjust, and when it can adjust, it can trend towards equilibrium rather than away from it.