At least on-line, the definitions I'm seeing are very heavy on the "there are no rulers / authorities / states / government" points. There ain't no "as long as

At least on-line, the definitions I'm seeing are very heavy on the "there are no rulers / authorities / states / government" points. There ain't no "as long as it's fair" escape clauses. Small-scale, if well-behaved people are the vast majority, and there are easy ways to cut out the occasional bad actor - that can work very well. Just look at the Internet of the 1970's and 1980's. Larger scale, with a real-world mix of human behaviors, and cutting off the "wrong sort" far more difficult - OOPS. Look at the modern internet, and the many toxic actors and organizations that have explosively grown in the large-scale anarchy. EDIT: Add "no big rewards for becoming dominant" to my preconditions for anarchy working well. You for-sure could not have gotten Zuckerbucks-grade rich by dominating the early internet.