Sept. 23, 2012

   Can a large scale civilization exist and thrive without the "guidance" of a centralized government that administers law and order? According to chapter 3 of "Ways of the Word," civilization and central rule go hand-in-hand. I tend to agree with that view. In considering the nature of the situation - that is, thousands of people trying to live together and share resources - basic human nature more often than not will lead to every kind of scenario from simple misunderstanding to all-out declaration of war. Like it or not, when thousands of people are existing in close proximity to each other, concepts like "kindness" and "sharing" can easily go out the window. As a real-world example, think about how many times drivers on freeways intentionally speed up to block someone from merging, or go through intersections when it was clearly someone ele's turn.
   Without law and order, people revert back to primal instincts. In turn, all the lessons learned from thousands of years of being "civilized" go out the window. At best, an individual or couple will fight for the survival of their family; at worst, the "every man for himself" motto is called upon and in those cases, man becomes a simple animal, fighting for his own survival. The modern concept of civilization seeks to eliminate the need for animalistic survival situations. Many times, the concept is proven true. In my personal experience lately, I have noticed how the biggest concern for many people around me is how they are going to get their anitbacterially-washed hands on an iphone 5 when it's released! If that isn't a glowing positive review for the benefits of civilization, I don't know what is.
   Without going too crazy, I can't help but imagine what the world as I know it would be like without a centralized government. On one hand, I would like to think that everything would be just fine and we would all share and get along no problem. But the reality is that it would be a world of chaos. Additionally, we would not be here at all really. After all, modern society is only here because a central power base decided to organize labor to produce food and other goods which would then be dispersed among the population and/or traded to foreign buyers. So, without that precendent being set eons ago, there would not be 7 billion people on Earth - the "old ways" would never produce such a "bumper crop" of humankind!