Re: How long would it take for Anarchy to start working?
There is a very simple explanation to this. These people may be selfish and crooked, they may even be inveterate villains (like Hitler and the crew), but they have the same trait in common, i.e. lust for power which can be satisfied only through organising people around them. If they are clever at that, they understand that their own ambitions can be fulfilled to the full only through making lives of the people around them better (be it a family, a city, a state, whatever). Even if you are as greedy as Midas, your greed can only be fed up to the limit if you are constantly giving back 
I don't think it works this way...
I feel like hawker summarized the overarching theme of criticism:
Having the right to live a decent society is important to me. It seems to me that anarchism is simply taking that right away.
I think we're not that far apart in what we want. But we have different views on how such things are to be achieved and probably also different definitions of a "decent society", as well.
I view it like this: NOBODY can guarantee you a decent society. Anarchy just gives you the option to try and go ahead and help create such a society. Government doesn't guarantee a decent society - I feel like it just stands in the way of such an endeavor by its very nature. And I suppose it's hard to deny that if government indeed does start destroying society instead of helping it, it is much harder to stop or change its course than to stop any other individuals or groups.
The only thing harder to change would be the underlying culture, which is the source of both - the genital mutilation and government. IMHO the two of them are not that far apart. One cuts off parts of your genitals, the other rapes your butthole
Well I'm glad this discussion is polite and fun. This topic is hard to debate, because neither the side claiming anarchy can work, nor the one claiming it can't work have any sort of evidence to support their claims and thus must rely on highly subjective stuff like "what is human nature" and "what do I like in society".