From: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 18:53:44 +0800
To: Rich Graves <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail"
Message-ID: <m0tfkpF-0008xkC@pacifier.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 02:14 PM 1/25/96 -0800, Rich Graves wrote:

>
>I believe that the choice not to read other people's personal mail is an
>ethical imperative, since we do not have and probably can not have total
>privacy enforced by technology and law alone. Sure, strong crypto helps,
>and should be spread, but there will always be back doors and
>implementation bugs, and in the worst case, most people will give in to
>moderate torture. 
>
>It's hard to say what the ethical role of individuals in the government
>(or Jim Bell's "assassination politics" organization, which quacks like a
>government for me) is.

Needless to say, I disagree.  If you define government as, "That entity 
which keeps me from doing bad things to people,"  then a S+W model 629 .44 
caliber revolver "quacks like a government to you."

If the reason you don't do bad things in public because people will sneer at 
you and criticize, then sneering and criticizing "quacks like a government 
to you."

What "Assassination Politics" does is to eliminate the ability of 51% of the 
population to control the remaining 49%.  If there is any residual 
pro-government bias left in this system, tell me and I will work strongly to 
root it out.