History Main / AnarchyIsChaos

-->-- ''Comicbook/{{V For Vendetta}}'''s title character rejecting this trope

* Deconstructed in ''Film/ThePurge''. While [[Film/ThePurge1 the first film]] played it straight, later films indicate that violence is ''not'' the logical outcome of an annual government-sanctioned holiday where, for one night, all crime is legal, as most people use the opportunity to hold massive, rowdy parties. The actual goal of the Purge was AnarchoTyranny where [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic the government's most violent supporters]] would be granted license to murder dissidents and minorities with impunity, such that they even send out paramilitaries to kill people and create the image of the Purge as a "murder holiday".

* Surprisingly subverted in the LetsPlay/{{Yogscast}} miniseries ''[[WebVideo/YogscastMinecraftSeries Cornerstone]]''. In Week 6, the group collectively decided they'd go without a mayor and leave the usual teams of people to do as they wanted for that session. They did surprisingly well, with LetsPlay/HatFilms expanding the base significantly, LetsPlay/{{Sips}} and LetsPlay/{{Sjin}} building a basic farm, LetsPlay/DuncanJones, LetsPlay/KimRichards and LetsPlay/HannahRutherford all harvesting rubber to make jetpacks and LetsPlay/{{Strippin}} and Benji working on Railcraft.

** ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'' zig-zags this.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''.

* ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronIV''

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''.
** Vault 21 was designed to have no authority figure, with the rules being that everything was decided through a gambling session. This Vault was actually one of the few that was opened up near-completely unscathed. Provided that having part of your home filled with concrete (because one guy was BornLucky, beat ''everyone'' at Blackjack, bought the vault and didn't want people tunneling into it) doesn't really count as a major problem.
** For that matter, you could call this the CentralTheme of the game. With the NCR, Caesar's Legion, and Mr. House all trying to bring their own flawed visions of order to the Mojave, the biggest choice in the game is whether you should give preference to any of them, or leave the Wasteland leaderless and hope for the best.

* {{Averted}} in Creator/EricFrankRussell's short story "...And Then There Were None". In it, an anarchic-libertarian community of Gands (they derive their name from UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi) is pretty orderly, and also utterly pacifistic-they employ passive resistance when the Earth military tries to coerce them.

* The Creator/LarryNiven story "Literature/CloakOfAnarchy" posits "anarchy parks" with just one rule: no violence (making them the anarcho-pacifist sort of anarchy). Any time a fight starts (or looks like it might start), floating robots stun all participants, who are then separated. They wake up a few hours later, and it's mentioned that the threat of losing part of your holiday is enough to keep most people in line. Then someone figures out how to make the robots break down, so "just one rule" (anarcho-pacifism) becomes "no rules", which fits the "chaos" definition. It's not pretty.
* {{Averted}} or even {{inverted}} in ''Literature/TheDispossessed'' by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin. Anarres is an anarcho-syndicalist society, and the closest thing they have to a government is the bureaucracy that manages job postings, but they’re peaceful and unchaotic. Much of the plot revolves around Shevek (the main character) fleeing his anarchist people because they've become ''too'' unchaotic, venerating the ideals of their founder as dogma and treating anything that diverges from those ideals as a threat, even something as innocuous as a new style of orchestra music. In other words, the anarchists have become conformists. The only time Anarres comes close to chaos is when a famine occurs: a town full of hungry anarchists might understand intellectually why a train full of food is being shipped right past them to a place that’s worse hit, but they’ve been on starvation rations for weeks and that food is ''right there.''
* Extremely prevalent in the Creator/DeanKoontz novel ''The Face''. The antagonist apparently thinks that being an anarchist means not just "causing chaos", but "aimlessly causing acts of senseless cruelty", like kidnapping and starving his colleague, trying to assassinate the son of a famous actor, poisoning the neighbor's dogs, gaslighting a schizophrenic by telling him the government is spying on him, exacerbating his girlfriend's anorexia... and [[AuthorTract promoting moral relativism]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking in an English college course]].
* Averted in S. Andrew Swann's ''Literature/{{Hostile Takeover|Swann}}'' trilogy, set on Bakunin, a world of anarcho-socialists (although the hero is more of an anarcho-capitalist) under threat by the imperialistic Confederation.

* In ''Literature/ThePrideOfParahumans'', Vesta was intended as a peaceful anarchy after independence, but things broke down as the life support infrastructure began to fail and homicide rates skyrocketed until the Protectors' Guilds restored order. [[spoiler: Making it more like feudalism.]]

* ''Series/BlackMirror'': Actually {{Subverted}} in "The Waldo Moment". The idea behind the neutral Waldo party is that it stands for nothing but a cynical "fuck everything" stance to political discourse, and that Waldo is merely a figurehead. In a parliament with no political authority, ''[[DemocracyIsBad public vote alone determines law]]''. As a result, the deepest darkest aspects of human nature quickly rise to the top and society quickly degrades into a barking mad, badly-run totalitarian society. All for a foul-mouthed cartoon bear.

-->-- ''Comicbook/{{V For Vendetta}}'''s title character rejecting this trope.

** Meanwhile, in the present-day timeline we have Norman. He might be an AxeCrazy {{pyromaniac}} and MadBomber with an acute case of ComedicSociopathy and an aversion to anything resembling work, but he still shows occasional signs of HiddenDepths, and anarchism clearly means a lot more to him than an excuse to set fire to things.

-->-- ''Comicbook/{{V For Vendetta}}'''s title character disproving this trope.

* The Creator/LarryNiven story "Literature/CloakOfAnarchy" posits "anarchy parks" with just one rule: no violence (making them the anarcho-pacifist sort of anarchy). Any time a fight starts (or looks like it might start), floating robots stun all participants, who are then separated. They wake up a few hours later, and it's mentioned that the threat of losing part of your holiday is enough to keep most people in line. Then someone figures out how to make the robots break down, so "just one rule" (anarcho-pacifism) becomes "no rules", which pretty much fits the "chaos" definition. It's not pretty.

* ''Podcast/ItCouldHappenHere'': Both played straight and....averted. While the fall of the US government results in large amounts of chaos in the land, Evans also details how chaos wouldn't necessarily come with a pull out of the US government. He also cites a real-life event during Hurricane Katrina where relief workers were expecting chaos, but ended up finding very little violence and destruction save for the hurricane. The narration details [[SecondPersonNarration your city being abandoned by the US government]], and life becoming....semi-normal afterwards. Until the Dominionist forces show up of course. He's also aware of real anarchist and libertarian ideas of alternate social orders, saying that he sympathizes with them, going into a bit of detail about how they might be used.

* As far back as the Literature/BookOfJudges in Literature/TheBible, we have this quote: "In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he pleased." This isn't depicted as a good thing.

*** In older versions of the game (before the ''After Midnight'' update of March 2021), this was also played straight by Russia after the collapse of [[TheCaligula Taboritsky's]] [[TheNecrocracy Holy Russian Empire]]. It's basically the same "turning black" map effect but localized in Russia - that is, the collapse is so severe that it is the same as if Russia was ''nuked'' to kingdom come. Not to mention that [[FridgeHorror the post-Taboritsky anarchy's ideology was Ultranationalism]], not Libertarian Socialism like other anarchy zones. You had mechanised infantry, state-of-the-art small arms, artillery and chemical weapons in the hands of roving warbands of indoctrinated fanatics who were thoroughly desensitized to endless killing.

* Inverted and subverted in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' -- abandoning the Empire and joining or forming a guild are presented with all the trappings of anarchy (everyone lives according to their own laws, don't have to join a guild if they want to make their own one-man guild, don't have to appoint a leader, and the only "authority" had is presented as people following directions out of admiration or respect rather than because they are an authority figure. The Five "Master" Guilds are just be the five largest or most productive guilds and have no authority over other guilds, and even the Don doesn't seem to have any official authority- he's someone everyone respects and obeys out of that, but it's also stated that he's just another guild member if not one with a lot of supporters), but the Guilds are the Order to the Empire's Chaos. The guilds are also constantly presented as being in the right.

** The part of the timeline set in the future features (among other super-governments) the Anarchist Collective, which sort of [[ZigZaggedTrope goes back and forth]]. Officially, there are only two laws, "do not profit at the expense of another anarchist" (which can be interpreted to cover anything from scams to murder), and "there are no other laws". The officials in charge are referred to as "Advisers" who don't put out laws so much as "suggestions"; you can technically break them without any sort of official penalty, but since the only difference between local police, angry crowd and lynch mob is how organized they are... the Collective does have a rather [[BloodKnight intimidating]] military, not to mention a [[KillSat secret weapon]], though. They still come off as ALighterShadeOfGrey compared to the other prominent factions, largely because things like freedom of speech are SeriousBusiness to them. There's also a reference to "true anarchists" who live in the wasteland between cities, taking potshots at passing vehicles.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. The villain Zaheer believes in a philosophy that is like anarchism. He sees that people will never be truly free until all governments have been brought down. When confronted with the fact that this would lead to chaos, he is okay with that since he sees the natural order as disorder. He goes back and forth between [[VillainHasAPoint having a good point]] about what bad leaders (like the thoroughly horrible [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Earth Queen]], the [[ObstructiveBureaucrat incompetent President Raiko]], and [[EvilOverlord Fire Lord Ozai and his predecessors]]) have caused and basically saying "yes, it would be total chaos, and that would rock!" In the end, while not one tear was shed when he [[spoiler: airbended the oxygen away from the Earth Queen, suffocating her to death, the extensive riots and looting that grip Ba Sing Se immediately after her assassination prove that, yes, eliminating a leader like that will indeed plunge a kingdom into chaos. The subsequent Book shows [[EvilPowerVacuum a brutal dictator acting to repair the damage caused]], making Zaheer feel incredibly guilty about what he'd done.]]

* ''La Résistance'' expansion to ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronIV'' adds the ability to turn Republican Spain into an anarchist defense council, in case the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar ends in victory for the Catalonian anarchists. National stability drops to zero, but they get bonuses that compensate or cancel the negative effects of this. The anarchist focus tree branch leads to the goal of converting other nations to anarchism, while the rest of the world targets you unless busy with another war.
* ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'' zig-zags this.
** Played straight by the world during [[NonstandardGameOver thermonuclear war]]. The map slowly turns black as the bombs fall, representing the downfall of law, order, and civilization in the face of nuclear apocalypse.
*** In older versions of the game (before the ''After Midnight'' update of March 2021), this was also played straight by Russia after the collapse of [[TheCaligula Taboritsky's]] [[TheNecrocracy Holy Russian Empire]]. It's basically the same "turning black" map effect but localized in Russia - that is, the collapse is so severe that it is the same as if Russia was ''nuked'' to kingdom come. Not to mention that [[FridgeHorror the post-Taboritsky anarchy's ideology was Ultranationalism]], not Libertarian Socialism like other anarchy zones. You had mechanised infantry, state-of-the-art small arms, artillery and chemical weapons in the hands of roving warbands of indoctrinated fanatics who were thoroughly desensitized to endless killing.
** Downplayed by Orenburg. While the anarchic communes around Orenburg can maintain organization on the village level, they have a hard time communicating with each other and the city and resist any attempts of centralization, which makes them vulnerable to external threats, such as Dirlewanger's bandits and Lysenko's minions.
** Defied by the Siberian Black Army, who are practically Anarchy Is ''Order''. Not only are their communes much more organized, they are also quite militaristic, with the army being a major component of the communities. It's to the point where some are beginning to fear a possible military takeover and the end of anarchism. [[spoiler:Their worst fears are realized if Ivan Stepanov succeeds in his MilitaryCoup, replacing the Libertarian Socialist Siberian Soviet with the Despotist Siberian Security Council and making the Free Territory anarchist InNameOnly.]]

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase''. Posthuman Studios happens to be run by socially progressive transhumanist Anarchists, who put a lot of their politics into the setting, and so the politically anarchist sections of the Solar System (the outer system, mainly) are portrayed a lot more sympathetically than other places, like the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny the fascist Jovian Republic]]
or the MegaCorp-dominated inner system.
** The Autonomist Alliance take up most habitats and settlements in the outer system, and while Anarchists of every stripe are represented here, there is an emphasis on [[UsefulNotes/Anarchism Mutualist Anarchism]].

* As far back as the Book of Judges in Literature/TheBible, we have this quote: "In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he pleased." This isn't depicted as a good thing.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had the episode "Legacy" featuring the planet Turkana IV, which was the home of a failed Federation colony that had descended into civil war and then lawlessness of the kind generally associated with anarchy. This being Tasha Yar's home world, from which she'd escaped as a teenager, her sister Ishara Yar helped the crew of the Enterprise retrieve two Federation officers whose escape pod had crashed in the ruins of the colony. While things were no longer so chaotic as Tasha had previously described them, Ishara's explanation for this was that the failing government had adopted the two largest political factions known as the Alliance and the Coalition as its emergency police forces, which backfired spectacularly, leaving them fighting over power. [[HobbesWasRight From a certain point of view]], their violent lives in these two factions' underground strongholds were a ''slight'' improvement over the utter lawlessness that prevailed in Tasha's time, when rape gangs roamed the ruins of the city preying on any victims they could find.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase''. Posthuman Studios happens to be run by socially progressive transhumanist Anarchists, who put a lot of their politics into the setting, and so the politically anarchist sections of the Solar System (the outer system, mainly) are portrayed a lot more sympathetically than [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny the fascist Jovian Republic]] or the MegaCorp-dominated inner system.
* This trope is used InUniverse in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', where the Camarilla likes to present the Anarchs as adhering to this trope and existing for no other reason than to tear down the order the Camarilla has created. In truth, most Anarchs aren't anarchists and the Anarch rebellion(s) are closer to generational struggles, with newer vampires chafing against the fact [[ImmortalRuler that their elders will never grow old and die and therefore hold an iron grip on senior positions in the Camarilla hierarchy]]. There ''are'' actual anarcists among the Anarchs, but they're the exception more than the rule.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns: Dragonfall''. The game is set in the Flux State -- an anarchic future Berlin. Although the city has been divided into numerous ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiez Kieze]]'' that are local communes at best and many people live in [=SINless=] poverty with an uncertain future, there's no complete breakdown of law and order with gangs of criminals ruling the streets. The game takes time to explore several facets of anarchist philosophy, and [[TheMessiah Monica]] or an overly altruistic player may even be criticized by Lucky Strike for making everyone dependent on you and thus becoming a 'ruler' to your Kiez.

* Surprisingly subverted in the LetsPlay/{{Yogscast}} miniseries ''[[Machinima/YogscastMinecraftSeries Cornerstone]]''. In Week 6, the group collectively decided they'd go without a mayor and leave the usual teams of people to do as they wanted for that session. They did surprisingly well, with LetsPlay/HatFilms expanding the base significantly, LetsPlay/{{Sips}} and LetsPlay/{{Sjin}} building a basic farm, LetsPlay/DuncanJones, LetsPlay/KimRichards and LetsPlay/HannahRutherford all harvesting rubber to make jetpacks and LetsPlay/{{Strippin}} and Benji working on Railcraft.

-->-- ''Comicbook/{{V For Vendetta}}''

* This is one of the main pro-democracy arguments on ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon''.

* Defied in ''Webcomic/ExistentialistComics'', which takes glee in having its anarchists (usually represented by Kropotkin, Bakunin and Goldman) show up and forming mutual aid societies and distributing goods and education freely -- while still wearing punk clothing. The strips featuring anarchists usually either end [[WeAREStrugglingTogether with them splitting up due to sectarian differences]] or being beaten up by the police.

* As far back as the Book of Judges in Literature/TheBible, we have this quote: "In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he pleased."

*** Also played straight by Russia after the collapse of [[TheCaligula Taboritsky's]] [[TheNecrocracy Holy Russian Empire]]. It's basically the same "turning black" map effect but localized in Russia - that is, the collapse is so severe that it is the same as if Russia was just nuked to kingdom come. The real horror of this scenario is that the post-Taboritsky anarchy's ideology is [[FridgeHorror Ultranationalism]], not Libertarian Socialism. You have mechanised infantry, state-of-the-art small arms, artillery and chemical weapons in the hands of roving warbands of indoctrinated fanatics who have been so thoroughly desensitized to endless killing that one of the "purification platoon" soldiers doesn't even recognize his own executed family anymore. According to WordOfGod, the post-Taboritsky collapse is so truly awful in terms of death toll and ideological insanity that it ''forever'' destroys any chance of Russia reunifying again.

* ''[[VideoGame/HeartsOfIron Hearts of Iron IV]]'' with the ''La Résistance'' expansion adds the ability to turn Republican Spain into an anarchist defense council, should Catalonian anarchists won the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar. National stability drops to zero, but they get bonuses that compensate or cancel the negative effects of this. The anarchist focus tree branch leads to the goal of converting other nations to anarchism, while the rest of the world targets you unless busy with another war.

* ''[[VideoGame/HeartsOfIron Hearts of Iron IV]]'' adds the ability to turn Republican Spain into an anarchist state through a decision. National stability drops to zero, but they get bonuses that compensate or cancel the negative effects of this. The anarchist decision tree leads to the goal of converting other nations to anarchism, while the rest of the world targets you unless busy with another war.

* As pointed out in the page quote, ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' is actually a subversion or inversion, pointing out that "mindless chaos" and "anarchy as a social system" are not, in fact, the same thing. Unfortunately, the peoples' reactions at the end of the comic (and those of [[MisaimedFandom many readers]] as well) demonstrate that not everyone realizes this.