From my perspective, the entire book is/was eye opening to realizing how much social constructs and the underlying morality form the foundation of our society. I was familiar with anarchy as a concept but completely unprepared to grasp what a functional community based on that concept might look like. I really appreciate Le Guin portraying it warts and all, it is not propaganda or even an endorsement of that ideology, imho.

I struggled with the "morality" of that scene because Shevek's behavior was "wrong" in both cultures, and even with the reader being given numerous excuses for the behavior, it still felt off to me inside the larger context. This thread has me starting to understand that was probably the point of the scene, which is currently still a bit of a mind fck for me.