Anarchism

Somalia gives us an example of what happens when people are free of government. People here and there form gangs that take advantage of others. Armed young men who command a point on the road - the gang's territory - demand payment of some kind from people if they want to pass.

In the Stone Age there was no government between communities. Bands of people attacked other groups of people, and eventually gang leaders called kings waged war for booty and then territory. For millennia the world suffered from wars because there was no government between groupings such as city-states. And occasionally what government there was broke down. This happened in Russia following the overthrow of the tsar in March 1917. In early 1918, anarchists continued to roam the countryside, and in large cities they were expropriating buildings and homes of the well-to-do, rationalizing their moves with the slogan "loot the looters." Eventually these anarchists lost what power they had, to organized others exercising power.

In 2003 we saw the results of a lack of state power in Baghdad. A world without government is a utopian dream that results in a sharing of wealth similar to armed robbery.

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