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About this quote

What does it mean?
An anarchist community failed because people refused to obey rules.
In plain terms
Trying to start a rule-free community failed because people would not follow rules.
What can you take from it?
Community organization requires some adherence to rules.

Where it applies

  • community building
  • social experiments
  • group dynamics

Putting it to work

  • establish clear rules
  • plan community structure

Questions to consider

  • Can order exist without rules?
  • Why do people resist rules?

Another view

The quote is a short anecdote without broader context.

More from Alan Bennett

  1. Polly: Education with socialists, it's like sex, all right as long as you don't have to pay for it.

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  2. I lack what the English call character, by which they mean the power to refrain.

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  3. That's a bit like asking a man crawling across the Sahara whether he would prefer Perrier or Malvern water.

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