From: George A. Gleason <gg@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: Sat, 1 May 93 03:42:24 PDT
To: uni@acs.bu.edu
Subject: Re:  Tactics.
Message-ID: <199305011041.AA08089@well.sf.ca.us>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Re confrontation vs realpolitik: in political action there is something
called "premature escalation of tactics."  That means things like having a
sit-in before you've even tried having a petition drive.  Once you've
escalated it's very very hard to go back to a less intense tactic, because
it looks like you're vacking down.  So good organisers escalate gradually:
letter writing, then petitions, then voter initiatives, then maybe mass
rallies, then maybe peaceful civil disobedience, and only if those things
fail, then more confrontational tactics.  

We should take a clear lesson from that.  Look at some of the ones who
succeeded: Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, and so on.  Start moderate, get
more intense only if moderation fails.  

From which: promulgating underground crypto *as a safety measure*, *just in
case* is one thing, but doing it to get in RSA's face is way premature.  I'd
say start by working with RSA to the extent possible, keeping at it until
there is success, and then if the govt tries to slam public key, that's the
time to break out the insurrectional approach.  But not before.  

The adrenaline rush of a big bad confrontation is a feel-good drug to a lot
of people but we have to be *smarter than that.*  

-gg