From: Billy Brown (bbrown@transcient.com)
Date: Thu May 04 2000 - 20:12:47 MDT
Zero Powers wrote:
> 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.
That is a lot like the early communist statements about how getting rid of
private property would make everyone better off. It sounds reasonable, if
you assume that everyone will do exactly what the master plan calls for them
to do.
However, since in actual fact about 99% of the population is adamantly
opposed to government surveillance of private spaces, the only way you can
have transparency is by erecting an authoritarian state charged with
installing the surveillance system at gunpoint. If you do that, you've
already lost your freedom, and the odds that the state will give it back are
just about zero.
Billy Brown
bbrown@transcient.com
http://www.transcient.com
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