Hi Zane,

>I certainly prefer self-control over external control. Unfortunately, there is not enough self-control of the type that DavidF recently described being put into action here.
>
>Translation: Other people are not behaving the way you would prefer.

Correct. And the overwhelming majority of UT visitors and posters *are*. I wonder why???? I think I might be somewhat in tune with most people here on this issue. Only a few are kicking down the walls of propriety*.

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*pro·pri·e·ty (pr-pr-t)
n., pl. pro·pri·e·ties.

The quality of being proper; appropriateness.
Conformity to prevailing customs and usages. See Synonyms at etiquette.
proprieties. The usages and customs of polite society.
----

>And that's a bad thing? Visit the offramp sometime, see what happens when people are free.

The kind of anarchy I was describing is bad.

>So you think that speech can be the same as destroying property? Guess you don't have much regard for the idea of freedom of speech.

I also said "...or destroying reputations". And, although often difficult to prove, libel and slander cases still are won regularly by people who have been harmed by someone's exercise of freedom.

I know about freedom of speech and freedom of the press. I also know that a privately-owned forum is not prohibited in any way from exercising whatever controls are deemed necessary by the owner. Period. If you don't like the limits, you can scream obscenities at your monitor or out your window. *That's* freedom of *speech*.

>Oh puleeeze! Anarchy is freedom, go read some websites and learn to understand what the word means, your dictionary definition is pathetic.

Zane, you might find a few obscure references to anarchy meaning "freedom", but the overwhelming evidence is to the contrary. I used the word to indicate precisely the definition cited, and that's why I cited it.

Perhaps you prefer Webster's 1998 version:

anarchy \An"arch*y\, n. [Gr. ?: cf. F. anarchie. See Anarch.]
1. Absence of government; the state of society where there is no law or supreme power; a state of lawlessness; political confusion.

2. Hence, confusion or disorder, in general.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

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Or, from Princeton University:

anarchy n : a state of lawlessness and disorder (usually resulting from a failure of government) [syn: lawlessness]
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University

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Or, perhaps Roget's Thesaurus, which equates anarchy with DISORDER. Maybe you'll find something here that you like better:

[Absence, or want of Order,] Disorder.
[Antonyms: order.]

[Nouns] disorder; derangement [more]; irregularity; anomaly (unconformity) [more]; anarchy, anarchism; want of method; untidiness; disunion; discord [more]. confusion; confusedness; mishmash, mix; disarray, jumble, huddle, litter, lumber; cahotage; farrago; mess, mash, muddle, muss [U. S.], hash, hodgepodge; hotch-potch, hotch-pot; imbroglio, chaos, omnium gatherum, medley; mere mixture [more]; fortuitous concourse of atoms, disjecta membra, rudis indigestaque moles [Ovid].

turmoil; ferment (agitation) [more]; to-do, trouble, pudder, pother, row, rumble, disturbance, hubbub, convulsion, tumult, uproar, revolution, riot, rumpus, stour, scramble, brawl, fracas, fight, free-for-all, row, ruction, rumpus, embroilment, melee, spill and pelt, rough and tumble; whirlwind [more]; bear garden, Babel, Saturnalia, donnybrook, Donnybrook Fair, confusion worse confounded, most admired disorder, concordia discors; Bedlam, all hell broke loose; bull in a china shop; all the fat in the fire, diable a' quatre, Devil to pay; pretty kettle of fish; pretty piece of work, pretty piece of business.

[Verbs] be disorderly; ferment, play at cross-purposes.

put out of order; derange [more]; ravel [more]; ruffle, rumple.

[Adjectives] disorderly, orderless; out of order, out of place, out of gear; irregular, desultory; anomalous (unconformable) [more]; acephalous, deranged; aimless; disorganized; straggling; unmethodical, immethodical; unsymmetric, unsystematic; untidy, slovenly; dislocated; out of sorts; promiscuous, indiscriminate; chaotic, anarchical; unarranged (see arrange [more]); confused; deranged [more]; topsy-turvy (inverted) [more]; shapeless [more]; disjointed, out of joint.

troublous; riotous (violent) [more].

[Adverbs] irregularly; by fits, by fits and snatches, by fits and starts; pellmell; higgledy-piggledy; helter-skelter, harum-scarum; in a ferment; at sixes and sevens, at cross-purposes; upside down [more].

[Phrases] the cart before the horse; ; chaos is come again; "the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds " [Addison].