From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 10:41:09 +0800
To: m5@dev.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)
Subject: Re: RANT: cypherpunks do NSA's job for them!!
In-Reply-To: <9601252218.AA12260@alpha>
Message-ID: <199601252238.OAA07065@netcom22.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



M.M.:

>> when you tell them that "what you are doing breaks the law", you
>> are implicitly revealing that *you*support*that*law*.
>
>That assertion is, I claim vociferously, false.  False false false.

the Tao of bad government: if you really want to get rid of a law, act and
think at all times as if it doesn't even exist.

how do "laws" work? the policeman coming to arrest you is only one
part of the process. the court handing down a decision is another part.

your friends, family, associates, etc. constantly
*reminding* you of that law is the major, critical, unseen mechanism
in propagation of laws.

laws are about perception. the government does not want to arrest everyone
that breaks a law. they do not want to have to enforce laws.
they want the law *not*to*be*broken*. the key way
that is done is through public perception that "doing so-and-so" can't
be done, that it "breaks the law". how is this public perception
propagated? whenever discussion of "so-and-so" is brought up, everyone
verbally thinks, agrees, acts as if, "you can't do so-and-so".

if no one is aware of a law, that law effectively *does*not*exist*.
there are a bazillion laws in the government that are never enforced,
because no one ever thinks of them. 

because everyone affected by it is always thinking about the ITAR, it largely 
does not even need to be enforced. the government has succeeded in
a pavlovian conditioning of the populace whenever any law is 
unchallenged.