From: ph@netcom.com (Peter Hendrickson)
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 21:52:28 -0800 (PST)
To: Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>
Subject: Re: [POLITICS] Re: Members of Parliament Problem
Message-ID: <v02140b02aeb30446063a@[192.0.2.1]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:31 PM 11/15/1996, Adam Shostack wrote:
>        So, if 'anonymous Senator' came out for legalization, it would
> be declared that it was Kennedy, source of all Liberal Evil.  Good
> policy comes from leaders standing up and leading.  Since they don't,
> I'm a crypto-anarchist.  To try and help the Congress become more
> effective is not in anyones interest, except that class of person who
> makes their living off the workings of government.

>         There are lots of variations on the argument that politics is
> from the greek poly, meaning many, and ticks, a small bloodsucking
> animal.  My interest in creating new, consensual realities is that I
> don't want to be forced to care about the congress.

I may have misunderstood you, but when you suggested "disallowing"
Congressmen to use anonymity, it did not sound consensual.  Even
blood sucking parasites should be allowed to benefit from
cryptoanarchy.

I for one, would be most interested in what Congressmen would have
to say if they knew their words could in no way be traced back to
them.  I suspect that there are a lot of basketcases in Congress
and that this would become clear from the horrible things they would
have to say when they were sure nobody was looking.

Peter