In terms of government influence over the lives of its subjects. (If you can think of a better way to think of it, please elaborate)
I would assume that modern North Korea is the worst current state according to the above criterion. How do states of the past compare?
Maoist China, especially during the cultural revolution.
This kind of depends on what group you are in that gets targeted. If you were in a decent position in the USSR, it was probably a pretty cool place to live. You got to travel around the world and all the cool people in the West treated you with mass respect. That would be a pretty sweet gig.
If you are a lowly Palestinian in a pretty free Israel, that would kind of suck. At best the hip people who matter will just call you a dubious "contraversial" issue, so that is a bonus in the suckiness
Stalinist USSR.
I'd imagine it would be Nazi Germany as a Jew, or Inquisition Spain as a Jew, or Rome as an early Christian, or the USSR as a previously well-off farmer, etc. Basically, it sucks when you're part of the group that the government is targetting for repression.
Yes, I am a huge Dodgers fan.
Anti-state since I learned about the Cuban Revolution and why my dad had to flee the country.
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Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.
Maoist China, by far. Only Democratic Kampuchea can rival it for the sheer scope of brutality and repression. At least the "man on the street" in the USSR or Nazi Germany didn't fear for his life, unless he lived in certain areas.
I too second China during the cultural revolution. As for current states, man Gaza would suck.
The list would drag on and on.
Off the top of my head I can think about the following:
Paraguay during the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870). To feed Solano Lopez's monstrous appetite for war the entire male population (everybody over the age of ten, including sick and slaves) was drafted into the "army", which was often nothing more than masses of desperate people armed with sticks and knives and pushed forward by military police units to charge into the well armed and drilled Brazilian regiments and squadrons. Since there were no men to take care of the fields and herds (many simply fled into neighboring countries when "universal conscription" was declared) and the women had been forced into acting as a labor force for the "army" starvation and sickness run rampant. It has been said Paraguay lost over half of her inhabitants during the war, about 250000 out of a population of half a million.
China from the beginning of the XIX century up to the late 1970's. Foreign intervention, starvation, civil war, popular uprising, Nationalist and Communist rule, the "Great Leap Forward"... for well over one and a half century China was in one Hell of a sorry state. While the situation was dire indeed three episodes were particularly terrible: the Taiping Rebellion, the First Sino-Japanese War and the "Great Leap Forward".
Flat out "playing the odds" wouldn't it be some shit African regime Rawanda, Ethiopia or whatever? Some place that had lttle or no wealth, sanitation, or good custom to sap from the get go (even worse than Cambodia or Maoist China) and further away from a richer pastors to immigrate to/ hope for some "trickle down" wealth to flow in from outside wealthier countries.
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree that wherever the worst place in the world is precisely, it's on the African continent somewhere.
Kakugo:the entire male population (everybody over the age of ten, including sick and slaves) was drafted into the "army", which was often nothing more than masses of desperate people armed with sticks and knives and pushed forward by military police units to charge into the well armed and drilled Brazilian regiments and squadrons. Since there were no men to take care of the fields and herds (many simply fled into neighboring countries when "universal conscription" was declared) and the women had been forced into acting as a labor force for the "army" starvation and sickness run rampant. It has been said Paraguay lost over half of her inhabitants during the war, about 250000 out of a population of half a million.
Man, why can't people just be friends?
Wherever there is hyperinflation.
What is/was the worst state to live under in history?
It is a dumb question that will get you dumb answers. Different people value different things. At best you are asking people to voice what they would dislike most in a government.
You would assume. According to your own miniscule knowledge about North Korea (correct me if I am wrong and you actually know plenty about it) and your own subjective ideas about what makes a government intolerable.
Being a Jew during the Spanish Inquisition isn't even in the top 100.
People who name Gaza are utterly ignorant of the world. gazans have higher life expactancies than some European countries,elect their own government and are oppressed day to day only by the islamists who run the place.
If you really want to see bad treatment look at how Muslims treat Christians or jews in Islamist countries
North Korea is vastly worse.
really for libertarians you sound a lot like marxists.
[/quote][quote user="AaronBurr"]
Really Burr?
Someone seems to be forgetting the fact of the blockade of goods into Palestine, which by any measure is fairly harsh. Not to mention how poorly they are treated by Israeli officials.
For a current state, Palestine is pretty absymal, by any standard.
Calling others Marxists, especially on the LVMI board, isn't the brightest move.
Sounds like we are headed towards an infinite regress, no?
Related:
What is/was the best state to live under in history?