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SOME OBSERVATIONS AND THOUGHTS ON PRIVACY AS A COMMODITY by Michael E. Marotta <mercury@well.sf.ca.us>
privacy. Today we say that we live in a global village. Therefore, the expectation of privacy is inappropriate.
T.C. May wrote:
Huh? I don't see how this conclusion follows. Historical examples of villages with extreme privacy abound.
This raises another matter that isn't dealt with here, namely that historically there has been a grey area between issues of privacy and the use of shame. Shame is a powerful societal determinant -- an example of it is the ostracism faced by any healthy young male who didn't volunteer during the 'Great' War. It can raise armies, empower religions, help keep suddenly noble bloodlines pure and clean. One-sided use of shame and all its subtle variants is one of government's most powerful instruments of opinion control. Getting back to the village example discussed above, the Puritan settlements of early New England help illustrate both sides of the question. There, privacy was superceded by a complex shame-based social system. And though there were many who were apalled at the way their lives had been entirely subjugated to a powerfully communicated minority view of what was shameful, that same shame had, and has today, an insidious way of keeping people quiet and in their places. This model may be useful to an understanding of privacy. What is to stop anyone from asking, and Cypherpunks deal with this issue every day, what is an appropriate level of privacy? When that question is formed on the basis of "What have you got to hide?" it takes on the aspect of accusation. And yet, that is precisely the question posed by our government as it leads the cheers for the good, right-thinking folk who know that only the guilty, only the criminally insane could ever feel the overwhelming need for absolute privacy. There's a parallel between those Puritan villages that figure so prominently in America's early colonial history and what is happening now as cyberspace is settled. Moderns look back at those times and remark on the amazing ignorance that drove many of the most terrible features of those societies. That ignorance hasn't gone anywhere; it is still with us. They might be hard to spot with the buckles off their hats, but the same people who today want escrowed keys and backdoors into all our lives are the ideological descendents of the Puritan finger-sharpeners. If that's true, then this is a damn good fight. And we can be sure of it whenever we hear: Cypherpunks, shame on you! Brian Beker -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLQo1KyJejrfgN5yJAQGuuAP/Y/sE/KQxNdZ52cKnEVD4AYBsO3cwmmC/ fHS8nwzPj1bxnlx3nVS3b+iWBrk8NLevbBLgPlIMSt2jTL32vjGyX3SYl8FPdfSX R+m+w9fv0lwKkfquW+hIAhrafTDiZfR6pdh0fAVZc3j+1OIWfli7zOICxjTZz+/0 q5Q0L5lYflE= =Rhly -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----