>On Friday, September 19, 2003 John Westbrooke wrote to GV-NZ, title:
 "Latest t-shirt from starspangledblindfold.com" :-
>
>> what does the star mean? seems a bit of an imperialist symbol, for the 
> Anarcho-minded!
>> (and i thought the "A" was supposed to hang out of the circle)
>
At 11:45 AM 2003-09-19 +1200, Christiaan Briggs wrote:
>
>Yeah, the usual way is to present the A as if it was spray-painted too. 
>There are obvious reasons behind this but I find it a bit odd when you consider that anarchism may well be one of the most ordered/structured societies conceived.
>
>Christiaan
>
At 02:53 PM 2003-09-21 +1200, I wrote "county-anarchy (was Latest starspangledblindfold Tshirt" to GV:

· Christiaan's phrase:
anarchism may well be one of the most ordered/structured societies conceived
 - caught my attention. ("chaos? ordered!?")

· Before he has a chance to explain, I'll throw in my opinion.

· The anarchism Christiaan and I talk about is the county-wide or NZ province-wide version, where each adult person in that county or province takes 100% responsibility for their own actions, and 0% responsibility for anyone else's. (No anarchism in families with children less than say 11yo.)

· Decisions are made by those most concerned/affected, after argument, hopefully by consensus, but with each person leaving the meeting(s) not bound by others' opinions, only by what they have decided they themselves will do. There is a lot of "peer-pressure", "appealing to one's better nature", and so on.

· The "structure" Christiaan refers to is IMO the constantly changing _network_ of personal decisions, obligations accepted, expectations of others' actions and attitudes, and so on - a true multi-dimensional network.

· In contrast, an "ordered/structured society" in most people's minds is the extremely simple one, of heirarchy; one-dimensional:
(1) the Ruler/Government tells the agents/enforcers and CEOs what he wants;
(2) the local and institutional "rulers"/CEOs tell layer/class-3 what's what
(3) the mid-level managers and local-body officials tell their juniors and the heads-of-households what they have to do;
    and finally:
(4) the typists, factory-workers, farm-hands, others-in-the-family, do what they're told, or get punished, fired (or in olden-days, killed).

· _I_ don't think a county-level anarchic society is utopian or impossible, but it does require most adults to act in a well-informed adult way.
   Something like the way: democracy can only work properly when you have a well-educated (and -informed) electorate. (Not what is in the USA now.)

David.