Breaking the Silence
by Loreena McKennitt
A tribute to Amnesty International
___________________________________________
I hear some distant drumbeat
A heartbeat pulsing low
Is it coming from within
A heartbeat I don't know
A troubled heart knows no peace
A dark and poisoned poolOf liberty now lost
A pawn an oppressor's tool.
Oh my heart be strong
And guide when eyes grow dim
When ears grow deaf with empty words
When I know there's life within.
A gunfire shatters silence
Where birds once sweetly sang
A mother cradles a child now dead
Now death where life began
From the troubled heart of South Africa
Nicaragua's festering sore
The turmoil on the streets of China
Death crying out for more
A change is slow in coming
My eyes can scarcely see
The rays of hope come streaming
Through the smoke of apathy
But oh my heart be strong
And guide when eyes grow dim
When ears grow deaf with empty words
When I know there's life within.
May the spirit never die
Though a troubled heart feels pain
When the long winter is over
It will blossom once again
If anyone tells you "Anarchy can never work, you're wasting your time.", as I've often been told in my budding libertarian career, you can bring up the following historical examples of political anarchy. (mostly copypasted from Wikipedia, sorry)
Iceland
"Icelandic Commonwealth" 930-1262AD (332 years)
The economist David D. Friedman regards Icelandic society as anarchic during the 300 years of independence, claiming that the Althing was more akin to a chamber of commerce than to the law-making body of a sovereign. If this is an accurate characterization, then Icelandic history would be the closest approach yet made to the Friedmanite ideal of anarcho-capitalism.
More information on Icelandic Commonwealth:
- http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Iceland/Iceland.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Commonwealth
- http://www.ourworldtravels.com/iceland/gallery
Ireland
In Celtic Irish society of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, courts and the law were largely anarchist, and operated in a purely stateless manner. This society persisted in this manner for roughly a thousand years until its conquest by England in the seventeenth century. In contrast to many similarly functioning tribal societies (such as the Ibos in West Africa), preconquest Ireland was not in any sense "primitive": it was a highly complex society that was, for centuries, the most advanced, most scholarly, and most civilized in all of Western Europe. A leading authority on ancient Irish law wrote, "There was no legislature, no bailiffs, no police, no public enforcement of justice... There was no trace of State-administered justice.[1]
More information on Celtic Ireland:
- http://lilarajiva.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/murray-rothbard-a-libertarian-society/
- http://libertarian.ie/historical_cases.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_and_present_anarchist_communities#Celtic_Ireland_.28650-1650.29
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brehon_Laws
By Wikipedia Editors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia#Politics
From Nation-State to Stateless Nation: The Somali Experience
By Michael van Notten
http://www.liberalia.com/htm/mvn_stateless_somalis.htm
From Destruction to Confederation
By Faisal Ahmed Hassan
http://www.somaliawatch.org/archivejun02/021123201.htm
