From: cactus@bb.com (L. Todd Masco)
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 94 15:40:55 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: CONTROL FREAKS
In-Reply-To: <199409111501.AA02333@panix.com>
Message-ID: <35019f$8p@bb.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In article <199409111501.AA02333@panix.com>,
Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com> wrote:
>
>>I think the point isn't that totalitarian states won't last: we know
>>that.  The point is that those trying to establish a totalitarian
>>state can do a hell of a lot of damage to the rest of us before they
>>fail.
>
>That's not clearly true.  The totalitarian states we know of developed years
>ago in a much less fluid environment.

In the rise of a sudden totalitarian state, you're probably right: frankly,
 I don't think that's got a high probability.  Even were a radical group
 to win elections, it takes time to change the way a country works: a real
 example is that Clinton was elected two years ago, and he's only now
 gotten around to gutting the second amendment.

I think the biggest danger we face is graduaully increasing totalitarianism
 across the board, through mechanisms such as GATT and European Union --
 there seems to be a world-wide push to smooth differences among nations
 out into a single (yes, here it comes) "New World Order."

It's not the sudden that'll cause the damage: it's the gradual.  "Picture
 world boiling frogs."
-- 
L. Todd Masco  | "Hide, witch, hide!  The good folk come to burn thee, their
cactus@bb.com  |  keen enjoyment hid behind a gothic mask of duty." -JS/BATE