From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 18:56:49 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: spoofing as performance art
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19971024103715.00b404f8@pop.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Indeed, it is hard to tell the difference between spoofing and
grave pronouncements on threats to one's own interests under
guise of national secuirty and/or personal privacy, for the truthful 
lying that accompanies each performance are identical.

Spoofing has the ethical and humorous edge, however, in that 
it gives clues to its origin as entertainment -- let's us in on the
joke -- while the seriously dramatic performer aims at dominating 
us with profundity, wisdom, righteousness, conviction and disdain
for disbelievers in the blind faith of the performer in the importance of
her responsibility to hector and lecture us into craven servility.

All leaders suffer over self-importance and thereby demand
ridicule to save us from them.

Here's a Bronx cheer to the non-spoofers, who don't get that the
joke's on them.

Thank Zeus and Juno, as far as I've read here, cypherpunks
has no implacably non-spoofers posting, though a few of us are 
pretty good at behaving seriously briefly, spoofing seriousness. 

And PGP is doing a fine sanctimonious act worthy of high ridicule, 
it's just conforming to what businesses and governments do to 
survive the disloyalty of employees and citizens who don't believe 
once-trusted leaders inevitably corrupted by power, fame and chance
to forever escape work (corrupt me, do). They become parodies 
of themselves.

Anonymous got it right: Bosses and Government, no difference,
same liars and snoopers and non-spoofers who just don't get 
what's wrong with putting their interests before ours, we gobbling
voracious maggots.