tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post8948154981401713233..comments2024-02-24T00:37:43.087-05:00Comments on The Other McCain: Apaches at the Tea PartyRobert Stacy McCainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03084541621503669804noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-69577258309575418592009-12-13T06:21:34.955-05:002009-12-13T06:21:34.955-05:00Did the Apaches win?Did the Apaches win?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-42425608934558436402009-12-12T20:52:04.058-05:002009-12-12T20:52:04.058-05:00There is a period of about 1,000 years in Irish hi...There is a period of about 1,000 years in Irish history in which the emerald isle was literally stateless. The clan, or "tuath" was the primary instrument of social structure. Membership in a tuath was voluntary, not hereditary, and one could move to a different tuath if one wished. Enforcement of contract and other legal issues was handled by tuath elders. If the offense was intra-tuath, the guilty party either abided by the elder's pronouncement or left the tuath, but if the latter, he would be shunned and would be effectively "out of business."<br /><br />For most of that 1,000 years, the Irish were essentially unconquerable by outsiders. There was no there, there; i.e., no king to depose and replace with another; no government to topple. The place was amorphous, essentially ungovernable in the modern, top-down, command-and-control sense.<br /><br />While this structure ultimately proved vulnerable to the rapacious Brits, it kept individual freedom alive for a millenium.<br /><br />More power to the "leaderless" TEA partiers. The movement is much less likely to be co-opted by GOP hacks if there is no party structure that they can infiltrate and take over.Bert Spencenoreply@blogger.com