C'punks, On Wed, 15 Jun 1994, Rich Lethin wrote:
. . . Noam Chomsky spoke here in January and made the point that the increasing mobility of capital increasingly holds governments hostage. He felt that it was the current greatest danger to democracy, because it bypasses any leverage voters might have on politicians at the ballot box. . . .
Chomsky's error is that he equates governments with democracy. There are plenty of governments (most, ALL?) that incorporate no meaningful elements of democracy. More often than not, it is the politicians who use governments to hold the citizens hostage. Then, of course, there is the issue of whether democracy, itself, is a good thing or not. (Personally, I'll take freedom over democracy any day.) The important issue for Cypherpunks is how we should respond to this seemingly inevitable increased mobility of capital. Does it pose a threat to privacy? If so, let's write code to thwart the threat. Does it offer us any tools we can use to fight the efforts of nation-states to take away our privacy? If so, let's write code to take advantage of those tools. Let's not forget why we are here. S a n d y