From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Jun 04 2000 - 09:55:39 MDT
>From: KPJ <kpj@sics.se>
>It appears as if Zero Powers <zero_powers@hotmail.com> wrote:
>|
>|Sure, once tiny and powerful surveillance technology is in the hands of
>the
>|masses we will all be vulnerable to the inquisitive and prurient interests
>|of our neighbors. But the same tech that threatens us will also be there
>to
>|protect us. It is, of course, a double edged sword. So you watched me
>|lounging in the nude last night? Well guess what? Someone watched you,
>|watching me and now *you're* going to jail. Nyah, nyah.
>
>And you don't notice how stupid the above sounds?
>
>If snooping on your neighbour is illegal and everybody does it, then what?
>Put everybody in prison?
First, if it's illegal not *everybody* will do it. There may be a high
incidence of illegal behavior, but that is usually not reason enough to
change the law or for the authorities not to enforce the law. Think
marijuana. It's illegal, but a significant proportion of the population has
indulged. Including many on the police force. But, guaranteed, if you
smoke a doobie in front of a cop, you will be cited. Try and carry a kilo
or two through customs and you will be arrested.
>Of course, if the Holier Than Thou start a jihad against anybody who is not
>like them, then they would naturally really _have_ to be holier than
>anybody
>else since everybody will really be out to check their personal lives.
>
>The power mongers will naturally not like the idea that the commoners get
>to
>look at their magical kingdom, so you can be pretty certain that
>surveillance
>will stand in the hand of the mighty, anyway.
It puzzles me how many people assume that the "commoners" must inevitably
bow to the will of the "mighty" on this issue. The commoners (at least here
in the US) have a tradition of standing up and being counted when government
attempts to trample the rights of the little guy. The NRA has successfully
kept attempts to disarm the populace at bay and will continue to do so for
the foreseeable future. The suffrage movement secured women the right to
vote, contrary to the wishes of the powers that were and the civil rights
movement secured the ability of blacks to do the same in the 60's. The
pro-choice movement and ACLU have repeatedly thwarted governmental attempts
to limit a woman's right to choose.
And those issues are questions over which the citizenry are/were sharply
divided. If the technology for ubiquitous surveillance is deployed by the
government, yet denied to the populace, my guess is that mostly everyone
outside of government would be opposed. You actually think the government
could ignore the wishes of virtually the entire population with impunity?
If so, you haven't studied your US history very well.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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