[quote]DrSkeptix wrote:
As I was saying…if you care to read the accompanying text…
“As Somalia awaits a new government which its people hope will restore stability after years of anarchy…”
These happy faces are captured after a government has been “cruelly imposed on them, as organized violence, or at the point of a gun” (the rot as orion would have it).
Nope, I agree with tb…government is a good thing–among other good things–especially when one has witnessed people suffering by its absence.[/quote]
Yes, I read all the text and looked at all the pictures.
Thank you for mentioning Mogadishu: it moved me to look for that link.
I am only now beginning to look into “Libertarianism”.
There was a test a few years ago here on Tnation where one would score where they fell in the political spectrum of conservative, liberal, libertarian, etc.
I took it for fun since I have no political identification.
I scored as libertarian. After a break from reading on Tnation ( I moved to the USA 2 1/2 years ago and I am getting to know my third culture before I feel I can open my mouth to comment on anything here ) I return and see a lot more about libertarians.
I am curious. I have no formed opinions since I do not have enough facts nor personal experience to do so.
My understanding is that there has never been a libertarian “government” or system in any nation in history, is that correct?
From your knowledge of politics, why do you equate libertarianism with anarchy? My understanding was that this so called “free market” would not necessarily mean a spider state ( your play on words “arachnids with anarchids” made me laugh, by the way, very clever! ).
As for the happy faces: I grew up in Brazil until I was 18. Those happy faces can be witnessed in spite of massive base suffering with no sign of relief from a “government”.
They did seem to retain a simple form of joy, because even though their common necessities had been taken away from them ( or just never there in the first place ) they still managed to pull a genuine smile at the site of another human face that showed an interest on them.
That taught me more about life than my government “protected” comfortable upbringing.
I witnessed that kind of suffering in the shanty towns of Brazilian society. It was like crossing into a parallel universe.
In spite of a lack of basic rights a simple and basic joy still remains.
By contrast, in spite of all the freedoms Americans enjoy, I have encountered a vacuum in people here that when it is not filled with bitterness and hostility ( mostly the women ), apathy ( mostly the men ) it has taken the lives of people from within.
I witness suffering daily in the presence of government, and this is my third culture.
There is a thread right now on GAL which is extremely sad for me to read: there is a young, beautiful, strong male that is asking for help because he doesn’t want to wake up anymore. There is another like him in the Army, in his avatar holding a riffle, with everything to live for and talking about feelings of suicide and being on medication to stabilize him. Sadly there are many others. One English one American.
And I have now lived in both countries long enough to have witnessed their pain.
It is real, and it does touch me.
That too, is suffering, in the presence of government.
So, I disagree with TB, government is not a good thing, and I have now repeated experienced in three different governments which became progressively bigger; and the bigger it has gotten, the worse and the uglier it gets albeit in an insidious way.
It may not be violence from anarchy but it is violation from bureaucracy.