From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Aug 03 2003 - 17:25:57 MDT
On Saturday 02 August 2003 07:07, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
> > This touches on the key point to me. It's never the *knowledge*
> > of what I or anyone else is up to that is crucial, it's the
> > *power* to do something about it. I think that if we survey
> > the literature that addresses totalitarian oppression, from
> > the Spanish Inquisition to Nineteen-Eighty-Four, then we find
> > that it's not at all the surveillance that is the problem, but
> > rather the ability of the authorities to *do* something about
> > it. Solzhenitsyn uses an entire chapter to describe "The Arrest".
> >
That does sound good. Except for the point that political winds shift and
change. What today is a perfectly cool situation could easily tomorrow have
those who would oppress much of what you believe the most in. If they have
total surveillance and the willingness to enforce their views then there
would be no way to oppose them or simply go one's own way.
For this reason, at this time, I think it is dangerous, even irresponsibly so,
to support this level of surveillance, even theoretically.
- samantha
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