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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 3878622" data-attributes="member: 3649">All civilization up until about, oh, 1700-1800. Large parts of the world today are like that: huge swaths of countries that, yeah, the Fodor's book says they're 'modernizing' or 'coming into the 21st century' (Hey! Look! This one little village has internet access and this kid who eats maybe four times a week has a Spider-Man shirt! Look how much culture has penetrated into the dark areas of the world!) but 'law' only reaches as far as the muzzle of a gun. There are large, large areas of the world where except for a certain veneer and awareness the people there live much as they did 1,000 years ago.The Old West in our own country is a perfect example of the Points of Light. Yeah, technically there is this large government that claims this land but claiming it and holding it are two different things. There are towns where the only order is created by outlaws. Bandits ride the roads with impunity. Law exists only when a man or a few men are willing to band together and make it so. The wilderness apart from the well-travelled trails and railroads is still mostly unknown. There are hostile natives, large predators, and sometimes a caravan (wagon train) or stagecoach just never reaches its destination, it's fate unknown until decades later.</blockquote>