From: Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 17:00:37 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: .sig followup
In-Reply-To: <199604041930.LAA24745@netcom9.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.92.960404122403.12946A-100000@elaine28.Stanford.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Thu, 4 Apr 1996, Bill Frantz wrote:

> At  2:52 PM 4/4/96 +0200, Ulf Moeller quotes:
> >"In some ways the online environment in 1996 feels like Hong Kong in the
> >last days of British rule: a very free community wondering what's going to
> >happen as the forces of law and order start moving in."  --  Charles Platt
>
> A better analogy would be free, peaceful, self governing Denmark waiting
> for the jack booted Nazi thugs to arrive and start hauling people off to
> jail.

There's no question about the thugs *arriving*. They're already here.
Fighting them is an internal political battle, not an external battle. Yes
they're clueless about the net, so in that sense you might see the
CDAmeisters as an "invasion," but I really don't buy this stuff about
Cyberspace (a word only Barlow can say with a straight face) being a new
"place." It's just a communications medium, no more and no less real than
anything else. I think it would be better to stress that the online *is*
real life. Your money and gigs of information about you is online. It can
be a force for freedom, or a force for totalitarianism. Right now, the
momentum is entirely in the wrong direction, both online and in "real
life."

-rich