At 16:23 97/11/17 GMT, Adam Back wrote:
I am not sure why discussion should lower your reputation capital, unless open discussion is frowned upon by those who you wish to influence. Perhaps you fear that you will be dismissed as a cypherpunk, a hardliner, whilst you are trying to appear less radical.
Maybe reputation capital is not the right word. There are some people who do not necessarily like what I am saying in Japan. I am using all of the media spin that I can to keep the tabloids out of my face. I regularly gets calls from the tabloids here trying to find something to tear down my reputation in Japan. This method of media spin is how most politicians in Japan extort and put pressure on public figures. Even if everyone here knows exactly what I mean, people can quote me out of context and things can escalate from there. So yes. I fear being cast as a cypherpunk hardliner and having it distorted in the Japanese press. I know for a fact that a few people are trying to do this and more will in the future.
I am pleased that you are discussing with us crypto politics in Japan... we have few contributors from Japan in the past. The lower protection for political speech in your country I always suspected was the problem. Dissidents who speak out against the government line in Japan I suspect are taking bigger risks than in the US, UK, and Europe.
You are correct. It is difficult to be a successful dissident in Japan.
I would've thought that the NSA's world policeman attempts would be resented by Japanese secret service types. I get the impression there are tensions between EU, UK and US secret services.
They are resented in Japan. The problem is, I have many of my assets in the United States so taking a Japanese nationalist stance against the NSA is not very intelligent for me. I like many things in the US and I would like to protect my ability to access to those things.
So... I am a wimpy moderate, but at least I'm talking to you folks. If you want me to shit or get off the pot, I think I'll get off the pot.
Well be careful of doing deals with the devil. Several crypto lobbying groups in the US some suspect did more harm than good. These groups lost their no compromise stance, and ended up helping to draft laws to ban crypto because they thought they could make the laws mildly less obnoxious by doing so. It may even have been the case that they had a net negative impact on freedom of crypto. Making deals with politicians is a dangerous game to play. They are opinionless power brokers, and will just use you as a bargaining chip.
I agree. I am trying to keep my politics rather disorganized and focused on cutting through lies and bullshit rather than building a political position. I have not organized anything other than a regular cypherpunks meeting where many different types of people exchange views and work on technology. I do not "negotiate" with the government. I just express my opinions. For now... but I understand very well the risk of political exposure. Many of my colleagues and friends have been socially destroyed when trying to break a pact with the "dark side." I have already had several "recruitment" pings from the "dark side," and the most recent attempt in the form of a bribe offer, I reported Time Magazine. The "dark side" doesn't like me, but they don't have anything on me... yet...
P.S. I am going out of town for two days and may not have net connectivity. So, if I don't respond to something, it's not because I'm hiding. If you don't hear from me in 3 days, call John Markoff for me. ;-P
Don't know how things work in Japan, but I hear from people who've had spooky attentions that the best protection against spooks is harsh bright lights: they hate publicity.
Same. Markoff promised that if I received a threat from either the US or Japanese government, he would write it up in the New York Times for me. I think this is the best protection I have. - Joi -- PGP Key: http://pgp.ai.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x2D9461F1 PGP Fingerprint: 58F3 CA9A EFB8 EB9D DF18 6B16 E48D AF2A 2D94 61F1 Home Page: http://domino.garage.co.jp/jito/joihome.nsf To subscribe to my personal mailing list send mailto:friends-subscribe@ji.to