"Countless third world deaths"--who cares?

["Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>]

At 7:51 PM +0000 10/23/96, Hard Media wrote:
>Did anyone read the cover article in last months US Wired? About why Walter
>Wriston , the ex-head
>of Citibank, is acting like a cypherpunk????
>
>I can't believe that a man responsible for countless third world deaths is
>being called a cypherpunk
>by Wired!!! Citibank is a major player in the third world debt
>crisis...this seems to be news for

He sounds a lot like a Cypherpunk to me.

As to "countless third world deaths" due to debt...I'm skeptical that
Citicorp had much to do with countless deaths. Money was lent for economic
development projects...some worked, some didn't. Lenders of money don't
"cause" deaths. People are responsible for their own actions, mostly. If
their governments are corrupt, they need to replace those governments.

(Besides, the Third World is extremely good at reproduction, and is way,
way ahead of the curve in terms of overpopulating themselves to extinction.
A few tens of millions of deaths are as nothing compared to the 7,000
million that now exist, increasing by 100+ million every year.)

Cypherpunks is about finding ways that the breeders cannot seize the assets
of those who save, who plan for the future, and who are not sheep.

If this sounds harsh, so be it. Cypherpunks is not about redistributing
wealth. Nor is about putting lenders of money in prison because they have
allegedly caused "countless third world deaths."


--Tim May

"The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM
that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology."
[NYT, 1996-10-02]
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."