The most survivable society: Central Africa

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Aug 11, 2018 at 08:25

Phil, I looked up "society"; and I must disagree with you:

so·ci·e·ty
səˈsīədē/
noun
noun: society

1.
the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community.
"drugs, crime, and other dangers to society"
synonyms: the community, the (general) public, the people, the population; civilization, humankind, mankind, humanity
"a danger to society"

"Society" has many definitions, including "all of humanity". Does humanity have an efficient governance? Yes -- it has dabbled in many systems, and has yet to settle upon one in which it is satisfied. The same could be said of any subset of humanity -- Communist China, for example, or Russia.

What IS essential for a society's survival, is having and raising children. I dare say, the society that does that most efficiently is most likely to survive. No children surviving to childbearing age = no survival.

In this respect, the most likely survivors are:

Niger, Mali, Chad
Angola, Uganda, Burundi, DR Congo
Somalia
Nigeria
Burkina Faso
Mozambique
Gambia
Zambia, Tanzania
Equatorial Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Malawi
Ivory Coast
Benin
Senegal
Central African Republic
Guinea
South Sudan
Cameroon, Congo
Sierra Leone

Altogether, these countries form a contiguous area, from Mali to Mozambique, plus one outlier (Somalia). Most of these are called "fragile states"; and indeed, the GOVERNMENTS of these countries are all shaky; but their SOCIETIES, in particular, their PEOPLE, are aggressively expanding.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".