At 12:23 PM 10/24/01 +0100, Ken Brown wrote:
Our society has, for all practical purposes, endless vulnerabilities. If as each vulnerability is exploited we plan on taking drastic steps to secure it from future exploitation, the costs will be staggering and the list of unsecured items will hardly diminish. The result of the current approach is an authoritarian society with a neverending, self-justifying security project ahead of it. Sounds like a wonderful place to live if you're an insect.
So we get either the Caves of Steel or the Naked Sun?
I'd go for the former, being a city boy, but I guess T. May, H. Seaver & D. Honig might prefer the hyper-exurbia of the latter. One step from the Machine Stops - set not in the ultimate city but in the ultimate suburb.
Personally I'd prefer a non-colonial foreign policy that doesn't generate such antipathy. The message of the WTC is this: regular ole' non-mil sheeple *are* held responsible for the actions of their government. *Even* in the US. What a concept. I suppose the sheeple in Dresden (etc.) know what that's like. When the US populations' endocrines settle down, maybe they'll clue in to cause and effect. Doubt it. Getting involved in others' family feuds is just too much fun. What was it General Washington said about foreign entanglements? I'd tattoo it onto every congressvermin's forehead.