1997-09-15 - Re: Federal motivation

Header Data

From: “Thomas Junker” <tjunker@mail.phoenix.net>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Message Hash: 968aff0306329bf3977e62b0400f0412c802a40224be4656071b3441c400805a
Message ID: <199709150716.CAA16258@raid2.fddi.phoenix.net>
Reply To: <199709150051.CAA25392@basement.replay.com>
UTC Datetime: 1997-09-15 07:37:37 UTC
Raw Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 15:37:37 +0800

Raw message

From: "Thomas Junker" <tjunker@mail.phoenix.net>
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 15:37:37 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Federal motivation
In-Reply-To: <199709150051.CAA25392@basement.replay.com>
Message-ID: <199709150716.CAA16258@raid2.fddi.phoenix.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



On 14 Sep 97 at 18:54, Martin Minow wrote:

> Anonymous, signing as Monty Cantsin, [wrote]:

> >Perhaps we can elaborate on this.  Judging from their actions, what
> >they want is a full blown police state.  They've seen the product, now
> >they want one of their own.  This is obvious to everybody on this
> >list, but sometimes people are coy about it, probably in an effort to
> >appear to be "legitimate".

> Sorry, it isn't obvious to me. The most paranoid I can work myself
> up to is to assume that some (not all) of our leaders want to restore
> their half-remembered 1950's Dick-and-Jane, big car, Eisenhauer suburbian
> childhood...

And I think that a tremendous obstacle here is a fairly widespread 
and definitely human tendency to ascribe innocent or misguided 
motivation to what are, objectively, consummately *evil* deeds. 
Those are not bumpkins up there in Congress. Some may question their 
IQs but of those congresscritters are crafty lawyers. The few who 
aren't lawyers are just crafty. That's how they got there and 
that's how they build their power and wealth bases once there, in 
jobs that don't pay enough to make any honest person rich.

> The new cryptography makes the Internet safe for child pornographers,
> for revolutionaries, for criminals, 

Virtually any resource one could name could be similarly demonized, 
as the beleaguered gun owners well know. Criminals enjoy safe and 
comfortable transportation by car, bus, train and jetliner. They 
sustain their mortal coils with food. They breathe air. Anything 
that is commonly used or useful can be said to nurture, further, 
encourage or protect the criminal element.  

The logical response is, "So what?"  

The emotional, PR knee-jerk reaction of a public only superficially
involved with anything outside the confines of their complicated
little sitcom-and-sports lives is to nod in robotic agreement and
sit still while breathing permits are passed into law, to be revoked
only when one of those nasty, awful bad guys uses air in furtherance 
of a political crime. By the time breathing permits are routinely 
revoked for expired car tags Joe Lunchbucket is in way over his head.

This stuff is serious. This pattern is not new -- it is just new
*here*, a development of the last 20 years. Similar slippery slopes
have been traveled in other countries, in other times. These times
are getting way too interesting for comfort. 

TJ

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