Re: Decline and Fall

[Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com>]

C'punks,

On Wed, 15 Jun 1994, Rich Lethin wrote:

> . . .
> Noam Chomsky spoke here in January and made the point that the increasing
> mobility of capital increasingly holds governments hostage.  He felt that
> it was the current greatest danger to democracy, because it bypasses any
> leverage voters might have on politicians at the ballot box.
> . . .

Chomsky's error is that he equates governments with democracy.  There are
plenty of governments (most, ALL?) that incorporate no meaningful elements
of democracy.  More often than not, it is the politicians who use
governments to hold the citizens hostage.  Then, of course, there is the
issue of whether democracy, itself, is a good thing or not.  (Personally,
I'll take freedom over democracy any day.)

The important issue for Cypherpunks is how we should respond to this
seemingly inevitable increased mobility of capital.  Does it pose a threat
to privacy?  If so, let's write code to thwart the threat.  Does it offer
us any tools we can use to fight the efforts of nation-states to take away
our privacy?  If so, let's write code to take advantage of those tools.

Let's not forget why we are here.


 S a n d y