From: cactus@bb.com (L. Todd Masco)
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 12:42:29 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Government and Repression
In-Reply-To: <9408311821.AA03287@toad.com>
Message-ID: <342mmc$8uv@bb.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In article <9408311821.AA03287@toad.com>,
Gary Jeffers <CCGARY@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu> wrote:
>Rishab Aiyer Ghosh writes                                               ind!
>
>>I'm amazed at the way some of you keep screaming about the violence of
>>governments. Maybe you need to experience some _real_ repression.
>
>   I disagree: In the U. S. we have real repression. Current real total
>taxation is approx. 45%. I believe the serfs of Europe only paid a
>small amount above 1/12 of their production to their lords. That's a
>little in excess of 8.3% We revolted against English rule for taxation
>that was tiny compared to current burden.

More to the point, the United States has the highest percentage of
 its population in prisons (according to Amnesty International
 statistics).  Enough to swing an election.

That's compared to the entire world, and this was the case before
 the USSR dissolved.  The only country ahead of us then was South
 Africa, and we passed them -- before their government changed.

This *is* a country under heavy oppression -- it's just arranged so
 that it's next to invisible to the people who aren't in prison or
 don't know anybody there.  We're also trained to think that we're
 living in a dangerous time by the mass media, while statistics simply
 don't bear this out.

People are regularly prosecuted multiple times for the same offense;
 The mumbo-jumbo of "different sovereigns" doesn't change this fact.

Property is regularly confiscated without due process: due process
 must be followed to retrieve said property.  Even without a 
 conviction.

Under the new Crime Law, people can be hauled off and tested for
 HIV infection merely by being accused of a sex crime.

If you don't call this real violence, I don't what you call it -- does
 it matter if the victims are anonymously disappeared or if others
 know that they're in prison?

Nobody seems to care because Cop Shows tell everyone that it's all for
 our own good.  Thank you sir, may I have another.

(Sorry for the rant.)
-- 
L. Todd Masco  | "Which part of 'shall not be infringed' didn't
cactus@bb.com  |   you understand?"