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A comment on Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Break Away. Parent comment

Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by narrator on Monday January 08, 2018 @12:45PM (#16098395)
As a curious exception to the revolution from below example, the Taliban completely eliminated heroin production in Afghanistan when they were in power. Production has skyrocketed since their overthrow. There's a reason why religious fanaticism, for better or worse, is popular among the destitute. It represents an alternative to criminal gangs for dealing with government failures.
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Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by ocschwar on Monday January 08, 2018 @04:05PM (#16100570)
They did that when they were trying to be recognized as a state, which they were earnestly trying to do all the way to September 10th, 2001.

Without that prospect, they stopped bothering. The Taliban's popularity came despite the opium ban, not because of it. The poppy growers did not get high on their own supply.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by nyolfen on Monday January 08, 2018 @01:20PM (#16098616)
>As a curious exception to the revolution from below example, the Taliban completely eliminated heroin production in Afghanistan when they were in power.

not so much lately. the taliban are at their highest peak of territorial control since the invasion, but these days their territories export poppies.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by digi_owl on Monday January 08, 2018 @01:09PM (#16098555)
Then again the notion of religion and state as two separate entities is a fairly new one.

Dig far enough back into the texts of most religions and you find that they have sections that are old laws dealing with everyday domestic quarrels.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by bovermyer on Monday January 08, 2018 @02:57PM (#16099783)
Considering that religion from the relevant eras was largely a mechanism of control (or, less ominously, societal orchestration), this is not surprising.

I'd very much like to read an exploration of the relationship between the rise of irreligious social constructs and the decline of the importance of religion in modern states.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by andrepd on Monday January 08, 2018 @03:10PM (#16099922)
You don't need to go any further that "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's." to see the principle of separation of church and state laid in a religious text.

Not that it was ever followed in practice in the centuries that followed.

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Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by scardine on Monday January 08, 2018 @08:29PM (#16102699)
If I'm not mistaken this is found only in the book by the apostole who was a tax collector for Caesar. :-)
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Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by jimmywanger on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @04:56AM (#16113742)
That was sort of the whole point of the parable.
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Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by krapp on Monday January 08, 2018 @08:30PM (#16102706)
...still canon.
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Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by mgleason_3 on Monday January 08, 2018 @01:55PM (#16098943)
Apparently not completely - and now they’re profiting from it.

http://www.businessinsider.com/taliban-control-of-heroin-dru...

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Re:Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Bre... by int_19h on Monday January 08, 2018 @11:07PM (#16103526)
They changed their policy on it after the 2001 invasion.
[ Parent | on HN ]