Hey, we are quaint! (Was: A Sign of the Future)

[Bill.Humphries@msn.fullfeed.com (Bill Humphries)]

Steve Levy replied to Alex Strasheim over an alledged 'plot' to discredit
cypherpunks at Wired Magazine:

>Give me a break.  I do not work for Wired but I write for them at times,
>and most often my subject is crypto related.

[...]

>On Mon, 5 Feb 1996, Alex Strasheim wrote [citing Gary Wolf 'channeling
>McLuhan']:
>
>> >     Concerns about privacy and anonymity are outdated. Cypherpunks
>> >     think they are rebels with a cause, but they are really senti-
>> >     mentalists.
>>
>> I'm not much for big conspiracy theories, but I like the little ones.

<rant>

Hey folks, we are quaint Jeffersonians for the most part here. We believe
that reasoned arguement should carry the day instead of FUD (fear,
uncertainty and doubt). And that privacy is a good thing. Whereas modern,
marketing driven media (as described by McLuhan) will use FUD and whatever
else it takes to deliver an audience. Ask any of the people who have been
publicly tarred as Nazi's for their involvement over the Zundel/Hollow
Earth/webcom business.

Wolf's portrayal of McLuhan is spot on, because media producers who give a
damn about anonymity and privacy aren't going to land the big contracts.
The money to buy bandwidth and servers wants the highest quality data
availiable so we can be coerced to spend every minute we aren't working,
commuting, sleeping, or fornicating (was f*cking before the CDA) as
'consumers.'

And many people aren't going to think of these issues, not because they are
dumb, but because they are so busy working to provide for their families to
spend any time in the reflective/meditative state required to make
political choices.

I suggest that Cypherpunks add one more slogan to their list:

               "Cypherpunks teach."

Because no one is going to invest in the time and effort to use PGP,
remailers, and blind web proxies unless they understand why they should.
I'm going to invest in the time to show my family and friends why these
technologies are important so when I mention PGP to someone they'll have
something other than the soundbite "only Nazis use strong encryption" to
fall back on.

</rant>

bill.humphries@msn.fullfeed.com
"The more you know, the more jokes you get" -- Tompkins and Kaufman