---
path: "/posts/tyranny"
date: "2022-07-19T23:19:51.246Z"
title: "Tyranny Of Structurelessness & The Tyranny Of Tyranny"
type: "wiki"
level: "1"
style: "prose"
image: ""
description: ""
note: "Max Fowler"
---

[Tyranny of Structurelessness](https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm) by Jo Freeman is a famous essay, 
which I see cited frequently whenever a group is in some type of organization process, and someone wants to introduce 
more formal organization for some reason.

I appreciate the original essay, but I think it often gets offered as though it were the end of the conversation, 
and there weren't other opinions out there, 
and sometimes it gets used as a blanket justification for using formal rules and processes, 
without fully considering all the non-formal influences, negotiations and possibilities that can go into collectivity, 
and how different people, depending on their background, have different affinity for formal process. 

Sometimes it even gets used as a justification for technocracy, 
which has a long history, ever since missionaries and "enlightened" folks started thinking they know what's best for everyone, 
and it is their moral obligation to manifest their vision onto the unenlightened world. 

*technocracy* - "The government or control of society or industry by an elite of technical experts." <br/>

See [this article](https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/technocracy.html) for more on technocracy.

Here is some more writing and critique of the tyranny of structurelessness:
- [Tyranny of Tyranny by Cathy Levine]( https://libraryqxxiqakubqv3dc2bend2koqsndbwox2johfywcatxie26bsad.onion.darknet2web.com/library/cathy-levine-the-tyranny-of-tyranny) (maybe not as elegant writing as the original, but has some interesting points)
- [A History Of Anarcha-Feminism]( https://blackrosefed.org/anarcha-feminism-to-destroy-domination-in-all-forms/) by Julia Tannenbaum which talks about Tyranny Of Structurelessness and Tyranny of Tyranny
- [The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy by David Graeber](https://1lib.mx/book/2489869/60ad0a)
  Chapter 3, "The Utopia of Rules, or Why We Really Love Bureaucracy After All” (the end of the chapter specifically critiques the tyranny of structurelessness)
- The statement from contract theory, that "all contracts are incomplete". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incomplete_contracts
- [an are.na channel on collaboration processes](https://www.are.na/new-name/collaboration-processes)

And here is the somewhat related (misguided) link about putting sexual consent on the blockchain (if we see some forms of crypto-maximalism as the full logical extreme position of formalizing life):

- Is Blockchain the Answer to Sexual Consent? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blockchain-answer-sexual-consent-230544393.html
