People use the term 'anarchy' recklessly, Daniel Morley Johnson says. They might be surprised at what it actually means

It wasn't your usual government leak. Jeffrey Monaghan, a contract employee at Environment Canada, was arrested at his office by the RCMP in May for allegedly leaking the Harper government's climate plan a month earlier. What made this leak more interesting is that Monaghan plays in a punk band that has targeted Stephen Harper in song lyrics, and he has also been involved with Ottawa's anarchist bookshop in a similar project. His band's website has links to the radical environmental group Earth First. All of which led one Calgary newspaper columnist to label Monaghan's "odious" beliefs - what we might call anarchism - "political chaos."

Anarchism is typically associated with some sort of menace and, increasingly, with terrorism. David Graeber, a self-proclaimed anarchist and formerly associate professor of anthropology at Yale, was dismissed by that university despite being hailed as one of the world's foremost young anthropologists. Many believe Yale's decision not to rehire Graeber - who will take a position at the University of London this year - was based on his personal politics, his writings on anarchism and his support of unionized teaching assistants. Yale has given no reason for Graeber's dismissal.

Rather than being understood as a complex political philosophy, anarchism is popularly regarded as chaos (the word actually comes from the Greek meaning "without rulers"). Anarchy conjures up images of bombing government offices or the total disarray that would apparently follow social revolution. We tend not to think of anarchists as intellectuals or teachers or bus drivers. Anarchism is dismissed as utopian and/or violent, hence the reaction against it.

Has anyone else seen IT busses rolling down the street sporting an ad for A Gambling Den Which Will Remain Nameless that is, quote "More Fun the Riding the Bus" unquote? Does this make anyone else slightly queasy?

I feel like the ad not only mocks and denigrates bus riding, but also the folks on the bus itself. Doesn't IT spend lots of thousands of dollars every year on marketing campaigns convincing people to use public transit? Isn't one of their major goals increasing ridership? How does spreading a message explicitly counter to it help further that goal? Shouldn't IT use some discretion when choosing what advertising they plaster across our public property (IT is a public agency, no? I'm not bothering to do that research)?

Anyway, I went into the station office downtown and complained and the lady behind the counter promptly grabbed a digicam and snapped a shot of the ad. so I'd bet that more folks going in, emailing and/or calling to register their disgust, discomfort, dismay or whatever might help IT review its policy.

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Word on the street is that Kevin Costner was walking around downtown Sunday, checking out the sites for a possible new bio-flick: "The Olyblog Father: The Rick McKinnon Saga."

When the backers of the film turned out to be of questionable South American origin, Mr. Costner beat a quick path across the Nisqually River (as reported by the Olympian) to the safety of Dupont and Pierce County.

It starts with this Letter to the Editor in today's Olympian:

"Pitting Jesus against Ramtha"

I read the full page ad by J.Z. Knight and her Mousketeers. It was especially interesting to me to see her advertise the books by Ramtha.

Two thousand years ago a man named Jesus lived, died and came back to life — with over 500 people witnessing it. This event has been scoffed at, ridiculed and declared incredulous. Yet, Knight’s followers have no problem with gaining wisdom from a long dead, 40,000-year-old warrior.

Go figure.

Paula J., Olympia"

Now, before I go any further on this subject, I feel the need to quote from The Olympian's "policy" on their comment threads (I'm assuming that the same criteria is applicable for Letters to the Editor):

"These rules are only a minimum; in addition to complying with these rules, we ask that you also exercise common sense and generally be considerate toward your fellow users. By participating either in our online discussion and comment posting systems, you are consenting to these rules.

1. You agree that you are fully responsible for the content that you post. You will not knowingly post content that violates the copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of any third party and that you will remove the same should you discover that you have violated this provision. Likewise, you may not post content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive"