Live for today

On Tue, 6 Jul 93 16:08:00 -0700,
 Timothy C. May <uunet!netcom.com!tcmay> wrote -
 
> The discussion of free speech and political correctness is
> apparently not welcome by some on this list. I guess the usual
> religious debates about which mail reader is better are what
> we're supposed to talk about. Well, I'm a member of this list,
> too, and issues of censorship and free speech are more
> interesting to me--and to some others, I suspect--than the
> intricacies of "MH."
 
 Hear, hear.
 
 Settle down, old chum. I suppose it takes a volitile issue or two to
 get me off of my keister, but now that I'm up, I'm more than willing
 to toss my (good?) name into the fracas.
 
 Idealisms are much akin to links in a chain; each crafted
 individually, yet forming a bond that link each idealism together
 into a society. (Discussions on how healthy this society really
 should be left for future discusion.)
 
 I walk a fine line between an affectionado for free speech and a
 staunch supporter of individual rights and privacy. Each aspect has
 its proponents and contentions, yet each aspect needs protection
 under _human_ law.
 
 Now, where does one infringe upon the other? I have always been fond
 of the adage that "your right to swing your fist ends when it hits my
 nose," and I hope you understand my sentiment. I have even played the
 role of the "net police" in at least one instance. (But then again, I
 did not react to rumor, innuendo or happenstance. This is another
 topic entirely. Those who subscribe to RISKS may be the wiser.)
 
 I applaud your exploit in the bitwise/erotica/net-police experiment.
 I personally think it was damned clever and proved a valuable point.
 In fact, I'd like to get your permission to reprint your original
 message in Legal Net News, por favor.
 
> What is happening to free speech? What has happened to "Sir, I
> disagree with what you say, but I defend to the death your right
> to say it."?
 
 I was a military-man (once upon a time), and took that oath
 seriously.  I tired of the "spinning-your-wheels" metality, so I
 naturally migrated into the private telecommunications sector.
 I would still defend it today, to death. Make no mistake, this
 country may have developed some serious problems over the course
 of the past 200 years, but some of us hold the intrinsic values
 embelished in the Constitution dear.
 
 What Tim has done is above and beyond petty in-fighting in this
 group. We are about change, challenge and chaos. We are old, we are
 new. We change, yet we are the same. What does it take?
 
 Ask us. We will tell you -- its about stirring up the pot.
 

Paul Ferguson               |  "Confidence is the feeling you get
Network Integrator          |   just before you fully understand
Centreville, Virginia USA   |   the problem."
fergp@sytex.com             |      - Murphy's 7th Law of Computing
 
               Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

Paul Ferguson writes:


>  I applaud your exploit in the bitwise/erotica/net-police experiment.
>  I personally think it was damned clever and proved a valuable point.
>  In fact, I'd like to get your permission to reprint your original
>  message in Legal Net News, por favor.

By all means! Just be sure to provide enough context and to included
the "explanation." Also, several other people made some excellent
comments, and you might want to somehow include their points.


>  Ask us. We will tell you -- its about stirring up the pot.

Yeah, I think a lot of us got involved in this whole thing (now called
Cypherpunks, but it started percolating years ago) precisely to stir
things up. And to the credit of you folks, I think some progress has
been made. The remailers, the awareness of Cypherpunks-type issues in
the media ("Wired," "Whole Earth Review," "New York Times,"
"Newsweek"), and our role in the Clipper/Capstone/Skipjack/whatever
matter, are all positive steps.

It is true we haven't deployed digital cash, nor have we set up data
havens in cyberspace, nor a bunch of other things, but these things
are instrinsically hard to pull off. Someday they'll come.

Finally:

>                Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

(I've been tempted recently to come up with a "crypto" version of
this famous "And who shall guard the guardians?" line. Something, in
Latin of course (for effect), about "And who shall eavesdrop on the
eavesdroppers?" or somesuch. Perhaps the original is best as it is.)

-Tim May


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it.

> It is true we haven't deployed digital cash, nor have we set up data
> havens in cyberspace, nor a bunch of other things, but these things
> are instrinsically hard to pull off. Someday they'll come.

Could someone please define a 'data haven'?  I understand digitial 
cash, it is exactly what it sounds like.  However, in the context I've heard
data haven used in, then there is much more than simply keeping one's 
data encrypted on your local hard drive.

Still learning and trying to understand all of these things.

-- 
Pat Hykkonen, N5NPL                     Texas State Technical College at Waco
Internet: {pat,postmaster,root}@tstc.edu       Instructional Network Services
Packet: N5NPL@WD5KAL.#CENTX.TX.USA.NA        3801 Campus Dr.  Waco, Tx  76705
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