From: cactus@bb.com (L. Todd Masco)
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 13:32:42 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Scienter and all that stuff
In-Reply-To: <9409201859.AA00254@doom.intuit.com>
Message-ID: <35nh2h$37i@bb.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In article <9409201859.AA00254@doom.intuit.com>,
Mark Chen <chen@intuit.com> wrote:
>> The facts and the law only matter when the government doesn't have
>> a hard on for you.  If the government wants to get you [and, perhaps, 
>> if you're not a millionaire "sports figure"] it will get you. The 
>> crime bill just makes the task a bit easier.
>
>This is quite accurate.  Howard Zinn makes the same point in
>_Declarations of Independence_.

Where does Steve Jackson fit into this theory?

I don't think it's nearly as black & white as you suggest:  Our systems
are not monolithic and some consitutional and democratic principles do
still have some sway.  Noam Chomsky discusses this when he talks about
reasons for optimism.

Which is not to belittle the orginal point that we have reason to be
paranoid: it's just to say that we don't have total justification for
despair, either.
-- 
L. Todd Masco  | "A man would simply have to be as mad as a hatter, to try and
cactus@bb.com  |  change the world with a plastic platter." - Todd Rundgren