Anarchy in practise: Somalia and Xeer

[Neike Taika-Tessaro]

"If you like anarchy so much, why don't you move to Somalia! (That ought to dispel any romantic notions of anarchy you may have.)"

Somalia is in a rotten state (pun not intended), indeed. What people who use this phrase angrily do not realise is that they've got two misconceptions:

For one, Somalia without government is demonstratively better off than Somalia with a government was, and that's with outside forces trying to reinstate a government, their society clinging to hierarchies, and severe differences in power in the people involved.

For two, it's simply incorrect - it's not simply to leave a state. People believe that 'if you don't want to pay taxes, stop using roads and social services' is an earnest possibility by just renouncing your citizenship. Unfortunately, this is not the case - some nations impose a tax on people who leave their country (citation not on me, again, link-dumping, sorry, am a bit rushed -- should also be easy to google, though), to state just one of many hurdles. Furthermore, Somalia notwithstanding (which as explained above is more of a political vacuum; and it will shortly be filled), there simply is no anarchy anywhere.

Thirdly (not refuting the point directly): This is pretty much a cop-out, aggressive answer. If we're not allowed to ask questions about the current political system, we can probably stop debating politics entirely. "Don't like gay marriage? Well, you can leave the country!" - while that reasoning may be appealing to me seeing as I'm LGBT myself, this is (forgive the colloquialism) a really fucking retarded way to discuss politics.

More details:

Why isn't Somalia a libertarian paradise?