[WikiEN-l] Autofellatio - NO to that image

Sun Feb 13 20:25:45 UTC 2005

Delirium wrote:
> Chad Perrin wrote:
> 
>> to be more clear:
>> Using "anarchy" as a pejorative term betrays a great deal of bias, or 
>> at least ignorance of how the term is often used in reasonable 
>> discussion of various political philosophies.  I hope you (Arno M) 
>> don't use the term "anarchy" to mean "bad chaos" when writing or 
>> editing Wikipedia articles, whether or not you personally view 
>> anarchism as a valid and valuable political philosophy.
> 
> 
> Well, this is getting a bit off topic, but anarchy *does* also mean "bad 
> chaos" in the English language.  The word has many meanings, only one of 
> which is the political philosophy.
> 
> To quote the OED's first definition:
> 1. a. Absence of government; a state of lawlessness due to the absence 
> or inefficiency of the supreme power; political disorder.
>  b. A theoretical social state in which there is no governing person or 
> body of persons, but each individual has absolute liberty (without 
> implication of disorder).
> 
> You seem to be talking of 1.b., but "anarchy" can also refer to simple 
> lawlessness, as in Somalia, or chaotic celebrations following a sports 
> victory.
> 

Upon reading the quoted definitions, I find that even 1.a. isn't 
specifically pejorative, while the comment I quoted is.  An absence of 
government, a state of lawlessness due to absence of "supreme power", a 
state of lawlessness due to inefficiency of "supreme power", and 
political disorder are (attempted, at least) objective statements of 
condition and circumstance.  They are not renderings of judgment.

Using the term "anarchy" to describe "chaos that is Bad", on the other 
hand, is very much a rendering of judgment, not only of that to which 
the term anarchy is being applied but to the term itself.

Somalia, by the way, is not "simple lawlessness".  Somalia suffers 
within a very, very awful situation that happens to include a rather 
complex lawlessness.

--
Chad