Somalian Anarchy

Radical State-Worshippers often like to launch the barb at advocates of the free market, "well, if you don't like the government, you should move to Somalia!" Their intention is that by invoking images of crazed, barbaric, dark-skinned savages who travel around in packs enforcing the will of "warlords", they hope to cower liberty advocates into embracing the State as their savior. Alas, if it weren't for far-seeing, benevolent, altruistic politicians pointing guns at us and demanding half (or more) of our wealth, we would all take our turn being dragged through the streets to the sheer, sadistic joy of our attackers.

Well, all isn't what it seems in the fantasies of Statists.

In a recent article called, The Rule of Law Without the State , Social Anthropologist Spencer Heath MacCallum points out that in the past 10 years, since the failed attempt by the Imperial Clinton Presidency to impoze a central government upon the natives of Somalia, that country hasn't sunk into bloody, brutal, barbarism - as was predicted - but rather, have shown many trends of positive social and economic development. Granted, Somalia isn't exactly a paradise to which I'm ready to pack my bags, buy a plane ticket, and go stake my claim. What makes Somalia a beautiful example that liberty-advocates can applaud is that progress is happening, even though Somalia exists in what is probably the closest - if not outright - example of anarchy. We don't need a State to rescue people from crushing poverty.

And what's more, is that MacCallum shows that the more brutal and violent aspects of Somali culture are direct results of attempts to establish and/or maintain a State apparatus. Of course, we libertarians are well aware that power corrupts the human soul, and that political solutions ALWAYS breed conflict and strife. State-Worshippers, however, believe in this power - that coercion and violence can do great things, yet, in Somali, that power is the cause of the very ills they want to create a State to solve.

Read the article. It's a good one!