TV Guidance

Jaime Weinman writes about all kinds of television and other kinds of popular culture. He does not write Gossip Girl episode reviews. Follow Jaime on Twitter: @weinmanj

Categories: TV Guidance

Somalia Is A "Libertarian Paradise"

by Jaime Weinman on Monday, May 25, 2009 2:04pm - 12 Comments

Via alicublog, this video explains that if you’re looking for a vacation getaway that hasn’t been spoiled by socialistic concepts like “public” beaches and “health” inspectors, there’s only one place to be this summer.

Tags: Government, Socialism, Somalia

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Mike T.

It’s funny because it’s true.
avr

Stick to the entertainment beat.

Jaime Weinman

I’m pretty sure the above clip counts as entertainment, Avr. (Whether it’s good or bad entertainment is another question entirely.)

The folks
With political jokes
Making vids
That corrupt all our kids
May be mean,
But if they’re on a screen,
That’s entertainment.

Sisyphus

Irritates all the irritable people. So it entertains me.

nd

I think he does stick to the entertainment beat – he writes about Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney pretty often.

http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

I know this is just a light hearted clip but it irritates me nonetheless. Libertarians believe in minimal government, not zero government, and they also believe in property rights and rule of law neither of which they have in Somalia. This ad should really be about a left-wing anarchism.

And I had no idea that cholera was linked with how many bureaucrats a country has.

nd

I love how libertarians run from the example of the one country that’s more or less put their program into practice. And as an added bonus jwl somehow tries to ascribe it to the “anarchist left”, simultaneously accusing the left of wanting more government, and advocating government-less lawlessness. Which is it?

Of course, the Republican canard about “small government” is…well, just that, a canard. Republican presidents tend to grow the size of government, usually in proportion with the vehemence with which they denounce it (see Reagan, Ronald). They don’t want smaller government, they merely want government to spend more money on things they care about – like the military – and less on things they could care less about, like the health and welfare of its citizens.

Bryan

Totally, nd. Somalia is *exactly* what the Cato Institute has in mind.

Also, all Republican politicians hate their citizens. You’ve nailed it, dude.

nd

I’m sure Somalia isn’t what the Cato Institute has in mind – but it is nevertheless a little inconvenient, because it’s a real-life example of the libertarian socio-economic model in action. Defending the charge by claiming that “that’s not what they had in mind” holds no more water than Marx and Engels being able to claim that a ghastly police state like the Soviet Union wasn’t what they had in mind when they talked about communism either.

The unfortunate thing about libertarianism is that its most visible exponents are simultaneously both idiotic as well as endowed with a great certainty in their beliefs, and so impossible to argue with. There is no such thing as a “moderate” libertarian. It’s whole hog, or else you’re a miserable and unworthy “sellout”. This is also probably why libertarianism, as an ideology, is entirely static – it cannot evolve through contact with other ideas, so it sits in self-satisfied isolation, consigned to eternal irrelevance.

As for whether Republican politicians hate their citizens, I suspect you need a little work on your reading comprehension if you found that sentiment expressed anywhere in my post above. But to throw you a bone, I do indeed think that Republican politicians value some of their citizens much more than others.

http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

nd

I agree left wing anarchism sounds oxymoronic but I don’t create the definitions. It’s a lot like communism without the apparat.

I am not a repub so what they do is neither here nor there. I want government to involve itself in law/order, infrastructure and national defence and let private orgs take care of rest. Reagan was a genius but he had to deal with a Dem Congress tho I agree that Repub and Dem presidents have been disappointing for years.

“Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.” Calvin Coolidge

Would only modern presidents and prime ministers say something like that.

nd

I agree that you don’t create the definitions, but you could at least take the trouble to apply the definitions correctly, to things which they actually describe.

Anarchy is lawlessness, a lack of authority. Well, there is indeed authority and law in Somalia – the autonomous region of Puntland is governed more-or-less like a normal (by the standards of the developing world) polity, and even in other regions laws based on tradition and tribal customs prevail, and authority in the form of militias or in other regions Islamic courts, exists.

What’s really lacking in Somalia isn’t law and order, it’s the provision of even the most basic government services. In that way, it’s actually the ultimate libertarian wet-dream – a state where even policework is farmed out to private contractors, the rich pay no taxes, and business is conducted without regulation or a regard for the commons.

As for Reagan, applying to him the dubious label of genius doesn’t make the meagre accomplishments of his Presidency (the parts he didn’t doze through) any more impressive in retrospect.