Lighten up, Perry! My comments in my lighthearted "A Volunteer Suit Has Appeared" were not directed at you or your position. After all, I was the one who first mentioned "suits," so my comments were not targeted at you use of the term.
In fact, why not just go to the top of a giant tower and get publicity for us by shooting random passers by? After all, as you've noted, there is no such thing as "bad publicity". I assure you that you will be covered by thousands of times more TV and radio stations for such an act.
Perry, Perry, Perry! Please, you're taking my comments and extrapolating them to absurd levels. Is this what you call being reasonable? I haven't said that *anything* goes, rather, I've said that the slightly outre image of our group is not ipso facto a bad thing. But I don't want your time or my time or the list's time this way.
Tim agreed in his reply to my message with virtually every substantive point that I made. None the less, he makes fun of my comments. He agrees that people do judge on appearances. He agrees that the radical protest movements of the 1960s were largely failures. Yet he wants us to appear unreasonable, and he wants us to emulate these failures.
Again, not true.
Tim has reacted with extreme vehemence to the minor question of our name. Its a small thing to us personally -- but it could help advance our goals. I can only conclude that since Tim more or less admits that he's wrong but still insists on his position that he is not acting on the basis of rational motivations.
?????? All I can say is that I hope Perry cools off a bit. While the Clipper Chip is indeed a serious and dismal matter, I see no call for such anger and charges that I've admitted I'm wrong, that I want our efforts to fail, that I want us to appear unreasonable, and that I am "not acting on the basis of rational motivations." It's clear Perry doesn't like the name of our group. Repeating this over and over again does not seem to be all that produtive. And the issues go beyond that of the mere name, which is a relatively minor issue. My post about "respectability" yesterday had much more to do with addressing the calls by some that our agenda be changed (e.g., reducing discussion of crypto anarchy, of guerilla distribution of software, of offshore remailers, of digital money, of money laundering, and the like), that we deemphasize the "crypto rebel" aspects and instead adopt a more mainstream line. It's clear that some are uncomfortable with these crypto rebel issues, these discussions on the list, and the possible repercussions. Well, these are the topics that got us started, and the latest Clipper Chip is no reason for us to turn into a carbon copy of the CPSR, EFF, and ACLU. Nor is it a reason to lose our sense of humor about things. -Tim May P.S. I'm quite serious that my little joke about Sternlight was not directed at Perry personally. I had already responded at length, and quite reasonably (I thought) to his comments. The Sternlight point came as I was reading Sternie's posts in sci.crypt and realized that what he (Sternlight) seems to want more than anything else is to be the "voice of reason" in the crypto debate. Hence my satire. If I'd wanted to satirize Perry, which I can't honestly say I've wanted to do, I'd've used some kind of material from him, or his kind of words. Cheers. -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.