Re: Anonymity and cowardice

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To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Date: Wed May 14 11:34:45 1997

> The time per year it takes for me to delete all these messages is about 
> the same as the amount of time it took me to reply to your previous 
> message plus the amount of time it will now take me to compose this 
> reply.  All back of the envelope, of course.
All by choice, which is what we're talking about here..

> I've been on this list for 18 months and have seen plenty of worthwhile
> posts from remailers.  You're entitled to your opinion, but I strongly
> disagree.
I guess I'll just never know..

> So you're calling John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton 
> cowards
> (anonymous authors of the Federalist Papers)?  Many others have 
> (also used
> anonymity to further the cause of liberty.  I doubt your real 
> name is "The Spectre" yet that is the name under which you are posting. 
>  Are you calling yourself a coward?
The difference in all these cases (save mine) is that the people you listed 
would have been persecuted, if not prosecuted, for their actions.  Now 
people are hiding out of fear and paranoia of something that in most cases 
doesn't exist.  The people you mentioned never had to deal with this level 
of abuse, either.

In my case, it's simply the name i've old my email package to append to my 
messages.  Anyone who really wants to can look me up at any time.
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On Wed, 14 May 1997, The Spectre wrote:

> The difference in all these cases (save mine) is that the people you listed
> would have been persecuted, if not prosecuted, for their actions.  Now
> people are hiding out of fear and paranoia of something that in most cases
> doesn't exist.  The people you mentioned never had to deal with this level
> of abuse, either.

Not everybody in the world has the luxury of not worrying about being
persecuted for what they write.  In other countries, free speech is
not a recognized right.  Also, many people express unpopular opinions
that might not cause persecution, but might mean losing a job or
worse.  It is also useful for "liberating" certain information.  In
another message, you said that ftp sites could be used for this same
purpose.  Most ftp sites keep logs, and any corporation or government
agency that has had secret information divulged is going to get the
logs from the server.

As for your comment about "fear and paranoia of something that in most
cases doesn't exist", how do you know it doesn't?  Only a few decades
ago, the U.S. government was conducting illegal, domestic surveillance
on communists, war protestors, civil rights activists, and other groups
the government didn't like.  What's preventing something like this
happening today?  Mailing list messages and news posts don't disappear.
Something you write today could be used against you years later.



Mark
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On Wed, 14 May 1997, The Spectre wrote:

> > So you're calling John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton
> > cowards
> > (anonymous authors of the Federalist Papers)?  Many others have
> > (also used
> > anonymity to further the cause of liberty.  I doubt your real
> > name is "The Spectre" yet that is the name under which you are posting.
> >  Are you calling yourself a coward?
> The difference in all these cases (save mine) is that the people you listed
> would have been persecuted, if not prosecuted, for their actions.  Now
> people are hiding out of fear and paranoia of something that in most cases
> doesn't exist.  The people you mentioned never had to deal with this level
> of abuse, either.

The authors of the Federalist Papers would neither be prosecuted, nor
persecuted.  Read the history about what happened about the debate over
ratification of the constitution.  Since you are wrong about this bit of
history (i.e. no serious personal consequences to the authors), I would
like to know if you have a better reason.

It is not cowardice for someone to hide their identity to not prejudice a
reader.  People might read "publius" and evaluate their arguments on their
merits, but if they knew the authors were specifically A Hamilton and J
Madison they might be dismissed as already knowing where they stood.

Why do authors like Richard Bachman / Stephen King use pen names?

Why do musicians like John Cougar --- Mellencamp alter their names?

Are they all cowards too?