Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!cynic!curt
From: curt@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca (Curt Sampson)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Anarchy (Re: Fool)
Message-ID: <8Pqis5w163w@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 12 Nov 90 10:23:42 GMT
References: <1990Nov12.033234.9412@com50.c2s.mn.org>
Organization: Mad Artists' Technological Hangout, Vancouver, B.C.
Lines: 45

craig@com50.c2s.mn.org (Craig Wilson) writes:

> My dictionary seems to provide for the lack of rules as being a basis for
> anarchy.  I contend that the Usenet does not lack for rules or guidelines.

From The Random House College Dictionary:

    anarchy, n.  3. a theory that proposes the cooperative and
        voluntary association of individuals and groups as the
        principal mode of organised society.

I think that this describes usenet pretty well.

> But some people extend their authority beyond their own system to affect othe
> people and systems.  These actions should not be viewed as anarchy in action
> for which there should be no recourse.  Rather the actions should be viewed a
> lawlessness on the part of the perpetrators.

Merely posting an article will affect someone on another system.
That, to me, seems to be the whole point of usenet.

Obviously people can start doing destructive or unwholesome things,
such as posting large numbers of irrelevant articles to a moderated
group.  There is no central authority that will stop this, though.  In
such a case a person would usually get his feed cut by that feed's
administrator.  If that admin refuses to cut the feed then someone
upline will do it.  If nobody wants to cut the feed then it's
obviously pretty much a net consensus that what the person is doing
isn't wrong (or wrong enough to be worth bothering about).

Someone who can't get a feed locally can go somewhere else.  As a
matter of fact, they can go anywhere else on the network as long as
they're willing to foot the long distance bill.  No single authority
can stop them from linking up.  Only the net as a whole can stop it.

The usenet is basically a bunch of people who have come to some sort
of consensus about how to act and regulate themselves accordingly,
without any central authority.  What would you call this if not an
anarchy?

cjs

curt@cynic.UUCP                  | "The unconscious self is the real genius.
curt@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca          |  Your breathing goes wrong the minute your
{uunet|ubc-cs}!van-bc!cynic!curt |  conscious self meddles with it."  --GBS