What bad things would you expect to happen if we were to revert back to the wild west days?

[Anonymous]

Imagine if we were going to colonize Mars the same way that we colonized the wild west, which involved having little to no central governing authority over a vast area of land where it took centuries to fully settle and establish civil law. Back then you could literally shoot someone if they were simply rude to you, I'd like to hear why personally a society like that would not be favorable to you.

[Soteris]

First of all, the wild west was a lot more organized than what you are thinking. For example, they had local governments and gun control and whatnot.

As for what would happen if we did NOT have government authority over an area? Chaos. Pure fucking Chaos. To start with, a power vacuum needs to be filled. If not by the government, then something else. Mafia, other criminal organizations, you name it, this has happened before whenever there are gaps to fill.

Secondly, natural disasters and social disasters are going to become worse and more common. A primary purpose of the government is to prevent and mitigate as much problems to society as possible. Things like predicting famine and make preparations so that life is not disrupted. Same for wildfires and whatever else. A martian colonization project is going to suffer immensely if they can't rely on the government for support in these problems.

Lastly, development is probably going to pretty much stagnate. Humans can live pretty much infinite generations just faffing around their farm without progressing further if the government and the rest of society was not pushing them forward.

Unless you enjoy sitting on your ass and watch plants grow for the rest of your (probably short) life while negotiating with the mafia to protect you from themselves, I dont think this is a life for you.

[BCA6010]

Unless Mars has some barbarian natives already living there that we don't know about, it's not going to be anything like your Hollywood interpretation of the "Wild West." It would however plausibly end much the same way as "The Donner Party."

What Mars colonization will actually look like is a first wave of people going to certain death to act as guinea pigs for a second, more determined attempt, and it'll be a one way trip for them regardless.

[purplepoppy]

Isn't that the problem modern day America? You've still got the shoot first ask questions later wild West mentality but with modern weapons

[zagor]

The amount of work and co-operation needed to live in such a hostile environment would make such a scenario extremely unlikely. The wild west actually required people to get along, for the most part, in order to survive. A lot of Native Americans actually helped the pioneers and traded with them.

[Asker]

There were also shootouts that happened from time and time at some bars and mostly outside

[zagor]

True, but not nearly to the extent depicted in movies. Like now, most violence occurred between young single males.

[Asker]

And what harm would a lawless wild west style of society for you be in that scenario?

[zagor]

It could be like that South American tribe that almost went extinct due to the high internal murder rate.

[slatyb]

That wouldn't work on Mars because life there would be extremely precarious and space would be quite limited. by the way, that 'vast area of land' -- there were people living there. The settlers murdered most of them.

[jahaims]

Colonizing Mars as a big disorganized mess won't work like it did in the west.