From: "Murray Hayes" <mhayes@infomatch.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 00:09:44 -0800 (PST)
To: "cypherpunks" <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: a retort + a comment + a question = [RANT]
Message-ID: <199611110809.AAA06516@infomatch.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Sun, 10 Nov 96 21:45:56 EST, SUCRUM22_at_INDY-ADP@smtp-gw.cv62.navy.mil wrote:

>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>dave kinchlea wrote:
>>As said in "Hair" (the movie), "Don't do it for me man, 'cause 
>>if the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't do it for you!" 
>
>>It's a lie anyway, you do it for yourself.
>
>That's an _easy_ judgment to make (and i definitely have to stop 
>adding anecdotes from my life in these things!), but you missed the 
>point - the freedoms the Cpunks diligently try to preserve (or seem to 
>want to create...) are protected _by_ the military.  who was it that 
>said:       "law, without force, is impotent"  -?  

The military's sole purpose is to destroy things and kill people.
Freedom is protected by the poeple for the people some of which
are in the military.  The force is not nessasary to enforce laws in
most circumstances.  How many gun battles erupt at speed traps?  Granted,
there are instances where some force is required in arresting violent 
individuals, but it is still illeagal for the police to use ecessive
force.

>
>keep in mind that even "bad" laws have to be enforced.  you can scream 
>all you want about "good, strong" cryptostuffs, but if the phone lines 
>are slashed, the satellite links are down, the elcerticity is off and 
>you've got a foreign soldier waving a .45 around -  just how are you 
>going to boot up that pretty little computer and make it encode 
>information for you, much less get it anywhere?  anarchy implies 
>ruthlessness - you going to practice cryptostuffs from a prison cell?

You are wrong about bad laws being enforced.  Many laws are not enforeced
by the police.  Have you never been "let off" or "givin a warning" by the
police?  How many times have you seen people j walk in front of the police
who did nothing?

Computers are not nessasary to encode data, they just make it a lot
eaiser and faster.  Where did I put that secret decoder ring????


mhayes@infomatch.com

It's better for us if you don't understand
It's better for me if you don't understand
                                             -Tragically Hip