(Fwd) What motivates Crypto-folk?

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Forwarding message by scmayo@rschp2.anu.edu.au
--------------------
From: scmayo@rschp2.anu.edu.au (Sherry Mayo)
Subject: What motivates Crypto-folk?
Date: 29 Jun 1994 08:14:16 GMT
Organization: Australian National University

The question in the subject of this thread may seem dumb to 
some people  in this group, but I'm curious about how varied 
the motivations  of  crypto-using people are.

I got PGP running on my machine a few weeks ago because I liked 
the  idea of being able to communicate privately if I wanted, 
as I felt  that email was much more insecure than other forms 
of communication.  I started reading some of the crypto stuff 
on WWW and noticed a political trend in the motivations of many 
of the people who are 'big' in the crypto scene in the US. The 
motivation for these people's interest in  cryptography seems 
to stem from a strong libertarian viewpoint, which  
incidentally often seems to coincide with strong views about 
the right to bear arms. 

It may seem that I am being particularly naive in being  
surprised by this but I am from the UK where libertarian views 
of this  kind are not so widely held. I have never held a hand 
gun and have no desire to do so. Similarly my motivations for 
using cryptography come simply from a desire for privacy from 
Govt. and other snooping but NOT  from the 'cyber-survivalist' 
inclinations that seem to motivate some in  the US at least. 

I read some stuff on Vince Cate's WWW site by Tim May about how 
crypto was going to bring down governments due to (legal?) tax 
evasion by those who are computer literate . I have to say that 
I think this is highly unlikely (and to be fair, Vince's site 
included an article by Hal Finney agreeing with my view). I 
know that Tim May's views are considered to  be extreme by 
some, but more moderate people seem to hold the view that 
crypto and also cyberspace (god I hate these buzzwords) in 
general herald an age of 'survival of the fittest' where those 
clued up about computers will be able to take advantage and do 
better due to paying less taxes  etc.

Personally I have no desire to evade tax since I quite like 
being able  to drive on tarmac without holes, and having 
schooling and health care  provided for all with the richer 
folk subsidising the poorer folk. I  realise my views are 
anathema to the libertarian and I'm curious to know  if there 
are other crypto users (I would NEVER call myself a cypherpunk 
:-)  who's interest stems from a left-wing rather than 
right-wing viewpoint.  I should point out that I consider tha 
libertarian/crypto-anarchist views  I've outlined above to be 
an extreme form of the (right-wing) philosphy of individualism. 
I'd never come across a right-wing anarchist before reading the 
crypto groups - weird!

Your thoughts please,

SCM