From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Tue Sep 10 2002 - 16:46:48 MDT
CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:
Universal surveillance *doesn't* help the innocent. It helps those
who do things those with guns like. Universal surveillance would
allow Mafiosi to catch people who try to obtain some defense, for
example.
### There would be no place for Mafiosi - you can't run a clandestine
criminal operation if your every word is recorded and every deed analyzable
in retrospect.
You are right that universal surveillance in a totalitarian state would make
it much more stable but the same can be said about its impact on a
democracy. This is why we should insist on imposing surveillance on the
government, to reduce the chances of it mutating into a much more sinister
force, even at the price of giving up our pretensions to privacy. If the Big
Brother really comes in this neck of the woods, he won't be asking anybody
for permission to install cameras, and all of them will be pointing your
way.
------
It would be grossly detrimental to all who "commit"
victimless crimes. As a gay man, I am *reaaally* glad they
didn't have universal surveillance in the 60's because I'm sure I'd
still be illegal throughout the country. Universal surveillance
would probably put the kibosh on a lot of hopeful trends like
drug legalization.
### I doubt it. The generally liberalizing trends in many countries are not
dependent on the ability of groups to conspire, it's rather the general
ethical growth of the population, with more and more people learning to stay
out of other person's affairs. If anything, openness dispels myths, light is
the enemy of fear, and without fear there is so much less to argue for
repression.
------
As long as we have the phenomenal concentration of power a central
government provides, some access to secrecy is essential to
control its excesses. Don't be deluded by the fact that the
government's power is often deployed for good ends, like catching
burglars. It has other effects as well.
### The best check on gov't power used to be a free press. With universal
private surveillance we get another one.
Rafal
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