From: Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 17:01:50 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: [NOISE] Re: Respect for privacy != Re: exposure=deterence?
In-Reply-To: <m0tc1KD-000918C@pacifier.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.91.960116000038.29666r-100000@Networking.Stanford.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Mon, 15 Jan 1996, someone using the name jim bell wrote:

> I've decided to post this to Cypherpunks.  Forgive me, it's only marginally
> on-topic, but I think it's vital for the public to know how Richard Graves
> thinks.

[Apologies to everyone for not just kill-filing this.]

If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to tell them myself, in context,
in public posts rather than in off-topic redistributed private email. 

In the last year I've inaccurately been labeled a Nazi, a Communist, a
Maoist, a Jew, an Anti-Semite, a KKK tool, an Anarchist, a Spic-Lover, a
Capitalist Stooge, a Tool of the Ruling Class if not an Oppressor Myself,
and a lawyer. 

Now I'm a Fucking Statist. Oh well. I defer to your four years' experience
on FIDONet, where you talked to "dozens" of people, who I am sure know
more about alternative political systems than the folks I worked with in
my four years studying Latin American history and political science at
Stanford. For example, Roberta Lajous, international affairs chair of the
Mexican PRI, who is a very intelligent and fair-minded person, but who can
accurately be described as a Fucking Statist, and Rodolfo Stavenhagen, a
Professor at el Colegio de Mexico who spoke at the recent Conference of
Indigenous Peoples called by el Ejercito zapatista de liberacion nacional.
Not to mention the Cubans, Sandinistas, Contras, and Salvadoran liberation
theologists I've known, four of whom were murdered in cold blood at their
seminary, in 1992 I believe. My good friend Istvan Feher lobbed Molotav
cocktails at Russian tanks on his way out of Budapest in 1956, and my last
serious girlfriend was a political refugee from Czechoslovakia who was
studying Soviet politics (you see, I haven't had a serious relationship
for a while). 

I simply prefer civilization to revolution, and structured ethical
restraint to retaliation. I believe government derives its just powers
from the consent of the governed with the purpose of securing fundamental
rights, and that there are such things as justice, consent, and
fundamental rights such as personal privacy that must not be abridged by
any body, whether defined as a government or not. 

Since I'm obviously a tool of the government who doesn't deserve privacy,
why not post everything you can find about me? I assure you that you could
find something quite damaging if you tried. I'll even give you hints in
private email if you like. 

I *double-dare* you.

*PLONK*

-rich