From: fen@genmagic.genmagic.com (Fen Labalme)
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 10:22:09 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: the bill of rights hasn't been revoked. not yet, anyway.
Message-ID: <9301221821.AA12809@>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> Murdering Thug writes:
> If you conduct EVERYTHING via encrypted and anonymous communications and
> keep all records encrypted, they really cannot touch you.
> 
> Don't you just love crypto-anarchy? I know I do.

So do I!

I get the feeling that MT is attempting to display some of the dangers of
crypto-anarchy via sarcasm.  (I really can't be sure, as such intonations
are really difficult to convey or pick up on in ascii.)

While it is true that in a free society, someone could buy a gun and kill
all their neighbors and possible even get away without a trace, I would rather
live in that free society than one that disallows the purchase of the gun
to begin with.  (The fact that I support strong gun control measures is not
contradictory to this.)

In the same way, I would like to encourage everyone, even the Ollie Norths,
to encrypt their communications.  Sure, there will be conspiracies that
take their toll upon society, but I feel that one of the biggest causes
of violence is the feeling of dis-empowerment caused by conventional laws.
Note, for example, that the countries that are less uptight about nudity
generally have less sex crimes.

Laws take power away from people.  Encryption affords people the capability
to gain access to the information they want and disseminate it to those
they want to without fear of recrimination.  This empowering technology
will, imho, empower the many to cause less harm to the few, and empower the
few to get what they want while protecting themselves from the wrath of the
many.

Hope that you find some of these ideas worthwhile...
Fen