>I point to the only example I can of true anarchy -- the world at
>any point before WWI.
Hmm, how is this Anarchy? If the basic idea of Anarchy is individuals
acting largely free of government coercion, what you had in Europe prior
to WW1 were millions of people controlled by governments that were not even
democratic. Seems way off the mark. Your point seems to be
warring states = anarchy
because both are political systems without laws. But in fact this is a
very poor analogy because most Anarchist philosophy is keyed off of the
individual. Classic examples of Anarchy would be Spain before Franco,
France at points during the revolution, the situationist uprising there
in '68, other TAZ, the internet, hippie communes, whatever. But not
the empires of 19th century Europe! It was against these very
institutions that classical Anarchy was formulated.
If you want to talk about groups in relation why not American
Indidan tribes prior to the arrival of Europeans? At least there individuals
were free to wander off if they didn't like the chief, a privilege almost
never given by nation states to their citizens (prisoners).
-Woz