From: koontzd@lrcs.loral.com (David Koontz ) <koontzd/daemon>
fnerd@smds.com For a logo... how a bout a fist holding a key?
How about a mailed fist holding a key, with the caption
Privacy is our Profession
I like it, but it doesn't emphasize the fact that we're fighting a war here, a war against government oppression. We're fighting a guerilla war, here folks, on the future battlefield of cyberspace. And like anyone fighting a dinosaur, we've got a big jump on the enemy in that we know our way around in this new world, and they're dumb, blind, and slow. We can hit them where they're weak, use disinformation techniques to confuse them, and then fade into the mist. We can introduce false data into their computers to make them run in circles, and drop their systems completely in classic guerilla style. The people will follow us, because we've got truth and freedom on our side -- all we have to do is explain this, and we've won! The leviathan must fall, and we'll help it along its way! We must arm ourselves conventionally, also, for those dark days that may be ahead. When a monster this size falls, we have no idea how chaotic things may become. Automatic weapons, the Anarchist's Cookbook (suitably corrected, of course), and other martial pastimes will balance our technological wizardry. Hm. It's not a particularly good imitation of Tim May's classic parodies, but it'll have to do for now. Folks, we're fighting a war. A public relations war. We are not, NOT, fighting a conventional war. Violence is not something we can have associated with us. We cannot be seen as hardcore anarchists, intent on crushing the state. We cannot enter into an obvious, head-to-head conflict with our country's government, particularly law enforcement. For us to be perceived as such in the eyes of Joe Sixpack is fatal. We will be, indeed we will have BEEN, marginalized and rendered impotent and irrelevant. For us to become so engaged in conflict in *fact* is to have lost, because we have nothing like the power of our wonderful government. If we give them an excuse, they'll crush us like bugs. We can't be seen as crazed revolutionaries. We have to be more like relatively harmless specialists in the field of privacy in cyberspace, explaining that technology has the potential to cause arbitrary badness, and we've got ideas about how to do things a different, better way. We can be out on the fringe of normality, but if we're seen in the same light as [fill in your favorite trivialized group of wackos here], we're fucked. Martyrdom is sexy and romantic, but rarely useful, and almost never ideal. Do keep in mind that this entire message is my personal opinion about how to go about making the world a better place. I'm not completely psycho about it, I don't think people with different ideas are stupid or even necessarily wrong. I just think the "conflict" meme is in danger of being given too much emphasis. -- Scott Northrop <skyhawk@cpac.washington.edu> (206)784-2083 ObVirus: The demand for obedience is inherently evil. ObVirus2: As a juror in a Trial by Jury, you have the right, power and duty to acquit the defendant if you judge the law itself to be unjust.