From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Thu May 04 2000 - 18:45:20 MDT
> Surveillance has *nothing* to do with freedom. You are free now to do
> anything that is legal. You would have that exact same freedom in a
> completely transparent society. Your only loss of freedom would be the
> freedom to commit a crime and get away with it. If you have a problem with
> giving that up, I think that says more about you than it says about society.
Yes: it says that your personal sense of morals differs from that of
society. It doesn't say whether it is better or worse, just different.
Given the society we live in, it's very likely that many people's
morals are superior to those of society. I, for instance, would not
want the government to know that I am supplying marijuana to AIDS
patients, even though I consider it the morally right thing to do, and
am proud of doing it.
In a sense, "privacy" is analogous to violence or deception: there would
be no need for it in a perfect world, but since the folks in power are
using those things to oppress us, we'd better use them in self-defense.
I consider it a moral duty to hide from and cheat a tyrannical government.
As (I think) Krishnamurti pointed out, it is no sign of mental health to
be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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