From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 14:33:57 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: I Got Mine
Message-ID: <199812030612.HAA32547@replay.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



I have this really, really bad memory problem. It gets worse
under stress. I also have this metaphysical dilemma thing.
I know the guy next door. I guess. Actually I don't know him.
I've called him Joe, but it wouldn't be right for me to say
to anyone official that his name is Joe, because I've never
checked his ID, so I don't really know, and even if I had
checked his ID, I still wouldn't _know_, would I? He's always
been a nice fellow, and I wouldn't want to cause him undeserved
harm by leaping to conclusions about him. Does he have a wife?
I don't know. I may have seen a woman around his place, but
I couldn't leap to the conclusion that she is his wife. I
might assume so out of courtesy to them, but I wouldn't presume
to tell someone official that he is Joe or that he has a wife,
because I really don't know. Most of what I _think_ I know,
and which serves quite well for inviting each other to our
barbeques and for borrowing small tools, is stuff I don't
actually _know_ and don't care about one way or another.
And that affects my memory when people ask questions about
him. 

Did I see those two young men snatch a purse from that 
lady over there? Yes. Can I describe them? Yes. Did I notice 
what they were wearing and in which direction they ran? Yes.

Do I know anything about Joe? Nope. Does he have a wife? I
have no idea. What does he do for a living? Gosh, I have no
idea.

The law requires you to give up information you have when 
asked by a law enforcement officer investigating a crime.
The law does not and cannot require you to notice things or
to have a good memory. If your memory gets worse as the
things being investigated stray farther and farther from
common law crimes and into the realm of "bureaucrime" and
thought crime, well, that's just too fucking bad.

I'd make a really bad juror, too. It's not a memory thing there,
it's more of a comprehension thing. I just have trouble seeing
guilt if the law itself is bogus. Not guilty. What? Are you
crazy? They had him dead to rights laundering money! Sorry, I
just can't believe the evidence. It just doesn't add up for me.
Explain why not! Sorry, I can't. It just doesn't work for me.

If more people had these problems, all the bureaucrimes and other
victimless crimes would, sadly, be history overnight. The IRS 
would lose every single case that went to a jury, and within 
months the income tax would be repealed, a no-audit, no-go-to-
jail sales tax would be in place, and most of the people 
working for the IRS would be looking for a new job. I would be
very saddened by the rude reality of all that, but, hey, what
the hell?

Will these problems that afflict me spread? You'd better hope 
your sorry ass they do! If they don't, we're all in for a very
rough ride, and not 50 years from now, but tomorrow and next
year. We're already well down the slippery slope. Personally,
though, I think we're in for a shitstorm. That's because
people are basically unprepared for the degree of evil that
has been refined and distilled in government. They're still
way too willing to spout off about things they don't even 
know, to presume the worst, even of their friends and 
acquaintances, to play full rube right into the hands of
truly evil people who have _their_ act down to a science.

If large scale genocide has been going on all through the last
several years in Bosnia while people on this list have been 
consumed in flame wars and pseudo-propellor-head duels on a
scale of delicacy of the medieval mace, how much more easily
can and does largely bloodless subjugation take place all
around us? If people can allow Ruby Ridges and Wacos to take
place without congressional offices being _filled_ every day
with outraged citizenry and recall petitions being launched
for every politician who even hesitates in taking a firm stand,
how can we think that the gradual sapping of our liberty will
evoke a response until things first get very, very bad.

There is a peaceful solution available today. At one level you
don't have to have a good memory in all things to be a law-
abiding and responsible citizen-unit. Just say "No, I don't
remember" about things that are none of your business. At 
another level, you don't have to put up with bureaucrimes when 
you sit on a Grand Jury or a trial jury. Just say "No." Don't 
argue; don't convince; just say "No" across the board to 
bureaucrimes. It takes 51% of the voters to win an election. 
It only takes 5% of the jurors to kill a bad law.

Nothing else will work. Nothing else has ever worked. If this
is not done now, we will all face terrible choices and
tragedies within as few as ten years.

AmnesiaMonger