Say No to "Glue."

["Michael E. Marotta" <MERCURY@lcc.edu>]

to: mech@eff.org
 
I found your memo from the cable company very interesting. And 
very familiar.  In the 1970s, I had a career in transportation 
management.  (Certificates, licenses, a couple of jobs.  I spent 
two years learning to read and understand ICC tariffs.)  Inter-
state transportation went under federal control in 1887.  In 
fact, they nationalized the railroads during WWI -- they also 
seized all RADIOS (transmitters and also receivers) at this time.  
They created the Railway Express Agency (REA) in 1920 from the 
freight forwarding companies they nationalized, as I believe, 
they created the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) at the same 
time.  
 
Anyway, in the trucking business, it was standard operating 
policy to screw the customers by pointing to "federal regulations 
that require us to do this."  Of course, those regs came from the 
close interactions between the industry and government.  Some of 
them were just typical company policies.  But you couldn't go to 
another company with different policies.  They were all the same.
By law.
 
Now, anyone who swamps about in libertarian political writing 
will tell you that this is to be EXPECTED.  If you talk to 
someone who likes to read Ayn Rand, they will tell you that this 
is REQUIRED by the Laws of Nature.  Banking, healthcare, farming, 
housing (and urban development), post office, you name it.  These 
are NOT isolated events.  
 
The reason that so many cypherpunks don't buy EFF's theory of 
"government providing the glue of the Net" is that they 
understand PRINCIPLES.  Government, like gravity, is what it is.
 
When the chimp leader or his lieutenants break up a fight, they 
beat both combatants.  They seek to control conflict to maintain 
the tribe.  The nature of the conflict the "right" and "wrong" 
are irrelevant.  Anaxagoras was tried for impiety.  Socrates was 
exiled.  (He chose death.) Galileo, Scopes, the NIH cancer 
quacks, the list is very well known.  They started with lead 
coins washed in silver and came up with federal reserve notes.  
From Nero's gladiators and the Christians to Janet Reno's ATF and  
the Branch Davidians.  These are all elements of the same set.  
No matter what the "good intentions" the road leads to the same 
place.
 
You let the government provide "the glue" and five years from now 
even The Well will be using regulations to screw customers. 
 
Don't blame the cable company for seizing an opportunity.  You 
created the environment they are living in.  In that company 
there are honest techies who love bandwidths and frequecies.  You 
put them in second place behind the scamster who uses regulations 
to screw clients for quarterly results.  Blame yourself for the 
fruits of your socialism. 
 
When Cobert called togther France's merchants to find out how the 
government could help them, one said, "Laissez nous faire!"