Anomie

Definition: the decline of society due to the erosion of moral standards, norms, and values

It comes from the ancient Greek word “nomos,” which means “custom” or “law.” The prefix “a-” means this is the opposite of that.

Why I Looked It Up

From Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet:

The disruptions and points of fragility and vulnerability that a community manager works against capture the specific complexities of the idea of community as expressed over infrastructure and code, as issues such as class struggle, anomie, and urban tumult offered points of departure for previous conversations.

That’s a lot of words to make a seemingly simply point?