From: Paul Bradley <paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 08:17:52 +0800
To: cypherpunks@algebra.com
Subject: Re: Tell the Fans, Not the Players / Was--Re: Rotenberg as the Uber , Enemy
In-Reply-To: <199706010558.BAA18210@dhp.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.970601123750.809B-100000@fatmans.demon.co.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> >a bunch of political rhetoric isn't worth much. And if
> >you don't think we're not busting our butt to protect
> >the rights of people to use strong crypto, you have no
> >idea what's going on.
> 
>   I think it would be more appropriate to say that you are *selling*
> your ass. Excuse me all to hell if my heart doesn't bleed purple piss
> for your heroic efforts for the "rights of people" but I would prefer
> for all of the time, money and effort people are putting into trying
> to get the government *not* to fuck me, when they are going to do so
> anyway, be put instead into developing technology to enable myself and
> others to route around the damage caused by government.

Quite, I think we have seen recently that even if these organisations are 
not corrupt, and have the genuine interest of citizens in mind, they 
still end up "playing the game" with the system. It is inevitable for 
them to try to compromise, there can be no compromise.

>   If the same amount of money that is spent on lobbying to get the
> "least-bad law possible" passed was put into cypherpunk projects, then
> before the President proposed crypto regulations he would have to 
> decide if it was really important enough to him to put up with the
> whithouse.gov site receiving 10 billion emails with "Fuck Clinton" in 
> the subject header.

As soon as fully anonymous digital cash systems are widely available and 
we have moved further along the road to creating censor-proof sites we 
will see the creation of the first AP bot, we all know the outcome.

>   Don't hold your breath waiting for me to join in the applause for
> your support of legislation compromising my privacy and freedom. As far
> as I am concerned, most organizations with the word "Freedom" in their
> name are a worse scourge than the politicians. They end up becoming
> self-important whores that the government uses to get a showcase stamp
> of approval on bad legislation.

This is another good point that often gets forgotten, strangely, most 
citizens don`t mind having a red hot poker stuck up their ass as long as 
it has "EFF red poker campaign" printed on the handle.

        Datacomms Technologies data security
       Paul Bradley, Paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk
  Paul@crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul@cryptography.uk.eu.org    
       Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/
      Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85
     "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"