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Somalia is bad. _Somaliland_ [0] has carved out a nice spot of land for itself. It's got plenty of problems, but it's not Mogadishu. Most of the world function

Somalia is bad. _Somaliland_ [0] has carved out a nice spot of land for itself. It's got plenty of problems, but it's not Mogadishu. Most of the world functions just fine without government oversight. Also, consider that in the absence of government, our lives (and cities) would be full of thousands of tiny corrections, back and forth, as people responded to the new information available to them. Governments let problems build, and eventually spend a few years trying to deal with the problem, only to arrive at a good solution a few years after everyone else has arrived there. The problem is they cause massive harm in the process. Reference: - War on drugs - Imperialism - History of who was allowed to marry who [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somaliland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somaliland

lhopki01 10y ago
Somaliland has a government. It's the bits without government that have issues. Only someone who's lived their life in a place with semi effective government will think that without government things will function.
- wonder_er 10y ago
  Couldn't you also say "someone who's only known living under government will not easily be able to imagine any alternative"? I.E. that which is uncomfortable isn't necessarily wrong. It's just uncomfortable. If I have an idea that is wrong, it doesn't threaten you, if it's just an idea. It would be safe to evaluate it, consider it, try to understand what weakness in my thinking has led me to that conclusion.
dmoy 10y ago
I've never met anyone from somaliland. But, aforementioned friends from Mogadishu say that the situation is completely different there. The crux of the issue in Mogadishu, as they describe it, is that many basic things which we rely upon in the US just don't exist. E.g. when something gets set on fire, it literally just burns to the ground because there's no fire department to come save yo shit. My guess is that in the absence of government, large cities would be terrifying. I've not heard of a large city without government before though.

lhopki01 10y ago

Somaliland has a government. It's the bits without government that have issues. Only someone who's lived their life in a place with semi effective government will think that without government things will function.

wonder_er 10y ago
Couldn't you also say "someone who's only known living under government will not easily be able to imagine any alternative"? I.E. that which is uncomfortable isn't necessarily wrong. It's just uncomfortable. If I have an idea that is wrong, it doesn't threaten you, if it's just an idea. It would be safe to evaluate it, consider it, try to understand what weakness in my thinking has led me to that conclusion.

dmoy 10y ago

I've never met anyone from somaliland. But, aforementioned friends from Mogadishu say that the situation is completely different there. The crux of the issue in Mogadishu, as they describe it, is that many basic things which we rely upon in the US just don't exist. E.g. when something gets set on fire, it literally just burns to the ground because there's no fire department to come save yo shit. My guess is that in the absence of government, large cities would be terrifying. I've not heard of a large city without government before though.