From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 94 09:12:30 PDT
To: Rich Lethin <lethin@ai.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: Decline and Fall
In-Reply-To: <9406152315.AA02540@toast>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.87.9406191236.A3123-0100000@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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On Wed, 15 Jun 1994, Rich Lethin wrote:

> Noam Chomsky spoke here in January and made the point that the increasing
> mobility of capital increasingly holds governments hostage.  He felt that
> it was the current greatest danger to democracy, because it bypasses any
> leverage voters might have on politicians at the ballot box.
> 

If I withhold my capital from some country or enterprise I am not 
threatening to kill anyone.  When a "Democratic State" decides to do 
something, it does so with armed men.  If you don't obey, they tend to shoot.

I know this may violate the cypherpunks politics alert threshold, but 
people out there have to realize that if technological change enhances 
the powers of individuals, their power is enhanced no matter what the 
government does.  

If the collective is weakened and the individual strengthened by the fact 
that I have the power of cheap guns, cars, computers, telecoms, and 
crypto then the collective has been weakened and we should ease the 
transition to a society based on voluntary rather than coerced interaction.

Unless you can figure out a new, improved way of controlling others; you 
have no choice.

DCF

"1000 idiots are not an improvement over 1 idiot."