-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Sun, 21 Jul 1996, Tom Weinstein wrote:
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 18:38:54 -0700 From: Tom Weinstein <tomw@netscape.com> To: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com> Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: Re: Netscape
James A. Donald wrote:
At 03:27 PM 7/20/96 -0700, Tom Weinstein wrote:
Why not consider what the consequences will be? Do you seriously believe that this will make the government stop enforcing ITAR?
Yes:
Widespread politically motivated disobedience forces the state to either demonize the disobedient, (as with drug users) or give up enforcement. This is a standard and effective method of forcing the repeal of laws, a method which has had a long record of success for several hundred years.
A handful of cyperpunks hardly constitutes "widespread polititcally motivated disobedience". In any case, the demonization has already begun; they point their fingers at the four horsemen of the internet at every oportunity.
One might say the same thing about 10 or 20 people throwing shipments of tea off of boats in boston harbor.
What I object to is anonymous activists who perform acts at no risk to themselves which make it harder for those of us who are trying to bring strong crypto to everyone.
Why? Because they can do it without risk? The way I see it, if you can do something that should be done, and you can do it at no risk to yourself, then its all the better.
The states cohesion derives from its legitimacy, and threats to legitimacy and cohesion are treated very seriously by government officials.
Threatening the states legitimacy is arguably more effective in influencing government behavior than blowing up federal office buildings.
The first step is to create at least a strong minority. A handful of cypherpunks can be largely ignored. We have to get the general public using and educated about strong crypto before civil disobedience will mean anything.
Hrmm... I'll agree with that... We need to do something to get ourselves noticed (and no, I don't mean blowing up the NSA headquarters) --Deviant -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBMfPPxTAJap8fyDMVAQF6Lwf9Fo3+79zO31nd+CQpLYh0Ptqa0s/T9Fkg T/sxZhB9qDK0E6qsvNq6MOn10YhBnHtJ2i7R5qyzgBlWLCsmcxT2SoYniRHV590s 6EXlvTyFMyCD1B5uFEdJrgOq9NTq18EEJ2+KxawPJ2OZKrN3XckCIfpZbl5m4GpW NoLaWtcKOKjGtdJj+em/xbRnczOEJh7BQ733sXQVsOryjjFdXu8EV4oZN8FU0Qat GNtw6VpzW2dLt2bcLEDXQSQdkIwXfs6+sXzjcGkB9SJoyAQMq20l1+h5YIHcfPiN alqHzN6YGOy4tILt1O/Xght67DLgRWhUmW3Apo5C2+IOfzqzHdAUMQ== =RATL -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----