November 10, 2004

National Politics

Can you Secede From the Bizarro World?

Carroll Andrew Morse

And having opened talking about the local roots of this blog, I now move immediately to a national-level post...

The (mostly tongue-in-cheek, I think) talk about some sort of red-state blue-state secession has me feeling like I'm living in the Bizarro World. I have a track record on the issue of secession. I've written a couple of Tech Central Station columns advocating secession and/or partition as a potential solution to problems in Iraq and Sudan. Based on the reaction to these columns, it would not surprise me if many of the people pondering an American secession think that idea of partitioning Sudan to protect the people of Darfur from the Sudanese central government is too radical to be considered.

I would never advocate secession for a democracy for a simple reason. Ultimately, assuming that the democracy is working, partitioning it limits the choices of an individual. Right now, a resident of Rhode Island can drop everything and move to Southern California without asking anyone's permission. If the US broke into smaller states, however, the departing Rhode Islander would have to get some form of governmental permission to settle in California.

p.s. Is there one "r" or two in "Bizarro"?

7:32 PM
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According to Merriam-Webster Unabridged, there are two Rs in "bizarro."

On the point of your post, there are too many variables to contemplate, but I wonder whether another factor advising against secession in a nation with democratic-representative government might be that it would break a taboo, thereby making the resulting countries less stable.

Posted by: Justin Katz at November 10, 2004 8:40 PM