From: "Jon 'Iain' Boone" <boone@psc.edu>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 94 06:20:30 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Oh No! Nazis on the Nets
In-Reply-To: <9402102321.AA09323@deathstar.iaks.ira.uka.de>
Message-ID: <9402111403.AA08543@igi.psc.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



danisch@ira.uka.de (Hadmut Danisch)  writes:
>
> A free country is a country where weak people can be
> protected before bad people with bad ideas speaking their
> mind. If the USA was a free country, you wouldn't have
> so many murders by gun.

  There is an inherrent conflict between being "safe" and being "free."  If
  you want the ultimate safety, you have to give up your freedoms completely.
  If you want the ultimate freedom, you have to give up your saftey completely.
  Most Americans (and, I suspect, Germans) want some freedom and some safety.

  Less than 2% of the handguns produced and owned in the United States are
  used in crimes.  Perhaps we don't need two or three handguns per citizen...
  But, we ought to be able to have at least one handgun, one rifle and one
  fully automatic rifle per citizen...

> Is it an essential part of freedom to be free to attack
> everyone?

  Sure.  Otherwise, I'm not free.

  But, is the liberty to attack someone a freedom that I cherish?  Not really.
  Would I be willing to give it up for some measure of safety in return?  Of
  course!  That's why we have laws against murder, assault and rape.

> You cannot keep a country free by allowing everyone doing whatever 
> they want; this is a contradiction in terms.

  Absolutely!  The "safety" of your freedoms, depends upon the restrictions on
  your freedoms, to a point.

> It is illegal, because it is "Anstiftung zum Mord", instigation for murder.
> This has nothing to do with press.
> Do you want to tell me that this is allowed in the USA? 
> Do you want to tell me this is good?

  This is neither allowed in the U.S. or good.

> > You may have difficulty finding places willing to sell them, however.
> 
> Isn't this a kind of censorship? Is this "can publish whatever I want"?

  No.  You're free to open your own shop to sell them, or have a man standing
  on the street corner to sell them.  It's up to you.  If I own a store,
  I'm not required to carry ever publication in the U.S.  That would be an
  inane law [not that we don't already have inane laws here...]

 Jon Boone | PSC Networking | boone@psc.edu | (412) 268-6959 | PGP Key # B75699
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