The word "hacker," when it was first used in the 17th century, it means people who hack on the wood and to make tools using wood. They also make their own woodworking tools, and most of the woodworking tools and the furniture at that time were made of wood themselves.
It took on the meaning of people who make their own tools. They work with the environment in relation with their tools, and they share their kind of relationship with tools, making it available just like furniture, buildings, or spaces for other people to use. As you can see from this metaphor, hacker could be an independent idea from the Internet. You can be a hacker in any discipline.
So the way that I think about these things, is that when I see there is a new situation and old tools, both the engineering tools and the tool of thought — ideas — are outdated, when they no longer describe the world we live in, then it is time to invent new tools, new ideas so it fits better with the world that we’re living in.
This is, for me, the spirit of hackers. Now, people can use this spirit to only break rules but without making new rules, or they do make new rules, but the new rules work worse than the rules that happened before. This is true for any innovators. The society as a large organ, should allow people to try different ways of doing things — but without harming, without hurting each other — and just “may the best idea win.”
This is my view of how a society can be tolerant or even encouraging hackers, but there is no such thing as a hacker’s government. There is no such thing as an anarchist dictatorship. These are just oxymorons that are impossible.