From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Wed Dec 15 1999 - 22:54:47 MST
John Sundman wrote:
> Spike proposes wearing clever disguises to fool big brother. Walk down the
> street in pancake makeup and eyebrow lifters! Duck behind corners when the
> camera swings your way! Wear human-skin gloves with fake fingerprints!
> There's freedom for you!...
Judging by this and some of the responses I got offlist, I will plop my
bony middle-aged ass down and reply: you missed the point! Its not
just that there are a jillion ways to fool big brother, and furthermore,
they would be *fun* to do! Nor is it just that it gives us a new
opportunity to play gags on the authorites, like we used to in college.
No, the real point is that at some point we (and the British) must just say
no to the government. The colonists did it, in the form of tea in the
harbor. I know I am a strange one to be pointing this out, being as
I was an early advocate of universal surveillance, however, I have
come pi radians on this issue, and now realize that universal surveillance
should apply *only to the willing*, those who will gladly give up all privacy
in exchange for something else. For those whose privacy is being taken
against their will, I wish to use my inventivess to defeat those mechanisms
which take away privacy. The mechanical face-modification jazz was
a bit of a comedic riff, by the way. {8^D spike
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