wired wankers

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
Thomas Bass, who interviewed him...then Bass goes on to ask if "Walter" has
made any "bad loans"
ie to dictators and other nasty sorts....jeez sorry but there's naivity and
there's stupidity

....seems like very few people know who or what cypherpunks are - good or bad?

Zaid

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."

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 Thomas Bass, who interviewed him...then Bass goes
> on to ask if "Walter" has made any "bad loans" ie to dictators and other nasty sorts
> ...jeez sorry but there's naivity and there's stupidity
> ....seems like very few people know who or what cypherpunks are - good or bad?

Now, now.  Just because they acted naive, you didn't buy it, did you?

There's an old joke: What's green and grows and has four wheels?
                     Grass - I lied about the wheels.

Cypherpunk is a problem for the establishment, and now that it's becoming fashionable, 
it's time to be co-opted.  Are you ready to be co-opted?  Don't bend over too far!

Short history of Wriston/Reagan ripoff: 1982, Wriston (speaking of Willie Sutton, "I rob 
banks because that's where the money is") said "I look out over the American landscape 
and I see 1.2 trillion dollars in Savings and Loans...." (quote approximate).  Enter 
neo-Nazi Ronald Reagan with Fritz Kraemer's "former" secretary in tow, and Reagan goes 
on video saying "Well, looks like we hit the jackpot".  Yowzuh!

Then they turned their sights on Japan, with 12 trillion in the stock market and 
Japanese banks, and I guess you know how that went.

These are very serious folks.  The kind of guys who can arrange war-crimes trials 
(Nurnburg, et al) as a smokescreen for their real mission.  Don't get in their way
unless you have an angel on your side.  An angel with a bag of cash, actually.