From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 21:45:54 -0800 (PST)
To: "Igor Chudov @ home" <ichudov@algebra.com>
Subject: Re: Technology and loss of freedom
In-Reply-To: <199703180220.UAA09325@manifold.algebra.com>
Message-ID: <332E2BA9.3AAF@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
> I have a thesis that it is the development of technology that has, over
> the last 100 years, eroded the basis for and appreciation of human
> freedom.  Technology has also done precious little for advancing human
> freedoms (although cryptography may be an exception).
> Let's first define freedom as the ability of people to do things without
> forceful interference from the government. This is an arbitrary
> definition, but it appears to be useful for the analysis below.
[snip]
> Is that an evil CoNspiRaCY of purebred sovoks and Zion agents or it is a
> natural consequence of inventions that dramatically changed the place of
> the man in the world? I am not sure.

I'd argue that the worst thing was probably television, since now
people don't go outdoors a lot and talk to their neighbors like
they used to.  Today, in most cities, you don't even know the
neighbors unless they blocked your parking space.

There are tradeoffs between the old and new - in the old society,
say, the USA circa late 1800's to early 1900's, we were much more
violent.  The big stir about shooting 4 students at Kent State
would be severly dwarfed by the mass killing of 1200 in one day
in New York city in the anti-draft riots of the mid-1860's, and
the bombings of the MOVE neighborhood in Philly circa 1985 and
WACO circa 1993 would be insignificant compared to what happened
to the American Indians.

Personal (non-government) violence was rampant long ago - men and
women as parents routinely called up the Bible verse "spare the rod
and spoil the child" to beat the living crap out of their kids.
Persons who were grown up in the 1940's and 1950's will recall the
days when parents would beat their kids in public when "necessary",
and when at home, beat kids so badly that you could hear the scream-
ing a block away.  Don't even ask about the violence against women.

This is only one example of the horrors of living in the "good old
days" - if necessary, I could catalogue some other examples.