-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Anonymous <nobody@replay.com> wrote:
Monty Cantsin writes:
What the Net and cypherpunkly tools create is a world in which there are not easily identified disjoint sets because any particular net of relationships that a person has tends to overlap the relationship nets of other people who have a dissimilar set of relationships.
This is a more reliable and robust world to live in because there is a great deal of redundancy. That is, the elites of two countries cannot conspire to use their respective sets of serfs as cannon fodder in some ill advised adventure. It's hard to get excited about a war run by people who are not your friends against people who happen to live in another part of the world but with whom you have a relationship.
Good point, but it's important to realize that these new attitudes are only available to people who have access to the tools. Much of the world is still trapped in a dark age, without access to the light brought by tools for communication. Powerful interests seek to keep them that way. Until that changes, the old mindset of us-against-them will continue to be a threat to peace.
True. However, to the extent that we and our friends do not participate, there will be that much less war. Even if we fail to end all wars, even the prevention of a single war (or the shortening of one war!) will be worth the effort. "War is not healthy for children and other living things." I've mentioned the newspaper "The Aurora" which was active during the Adams administration. A strong argument can be made that this one newspaper prevented a war with France and the introduction of Monarchy into the United States. Considering the relatively small number of people involved with this list, the prevention of one war would be a fantastic achievement. Consider the benefit that the prevention of World War I would have brought the world. Millions of people would not have died before their time. Millions of other people would not have lead lives after the war of dejection and sorrow either due to their own direct involvement in the war or that of their friends and relatives. Communism would probably not have arisen sparing the lives of millions. World War II would probably not have occurred again sparing the lives of millions. The development of germ warfare, chemical warfare, and nuclear warfare would have proceeded far more slowly. We would be living in a far wealthier and more peaceful world.
We as cypherpunks must be leaders in encouraging wider access to communications and the tools which manage information. It's not right to target our message narrowly to the militias and racists who gravitate towards anti-government causes. We must be inclusive, offering encouragement to other cultures, other races, other countries. Anti-Japanese, anti-Jewish, anti-Black, anti-Arab sentiments will only hinder our success, and likewise with our emphasis on violence, killing, and death as solutions to problems.
Here I am afraid we disagree. The world has too many damned leaders! I also believe that it is a better practice to explore ideas that are interesting and discuss them honestly rather than to attempt to sweeten the ideas for consumption by large numbers of people. The people who are receptive to our ideas will understand. Those who are not will become slaves. As for being inclusive to foreigners, it's a pretty inclusive list. After all, anybody in the world who can operate majordomo is allowed to participate! You can't do much better than that. It's my guess that most current readers of the list don't especially care where people come from or even their exact ideological alignment, so long as they have interesting things to say. Finally, your perception that there is an "emphasis on violence, killing, and death" is not accurate. What is the cypherpunk body count? Last I checked it was zero. Out of the thousands of people who have been on the list, can you think of a single act of violence perpetrated by a list member? The only ones I know about happened in wars sponsored by the U.S. government before the list was even formed.
The fact that other cultures are often repressive in their own right is no excuse. The tools we offer will help them become more open-minded and inclusive. But we must set an example ourselves. It is a tragedy that the message of hate is being propagated within a technological movement which should foster openness and enlightenment. We can do better than this.
Maybe it would be best if you set an example in setting an example for the rest of us to follow. ;-) My sense of your article, feel free to correct me if I am wrong, is that you see the Cypherpunks as a more or less cohesive group with a coherent agenda and a face to present to the outside world. I prefer to look at it as a mailing list to which anybody in the world may subscribe. I am certainly not responsible for other people's work on it, for better or for worse. And, I believe we will get more done if I, for one example, think for myself about the most useful thing my time could be spent doing. If 100 cypherpunks choose one leader and follow his instructions will we really accomplish more than if 100 cypherpunks think imaginatively and creatively about what they themselves will do? I doubt it. Besides which, leaders are choke points. Monty Cantsin Editor in Chief Smile Magazine http://www.neoism.org/squares/smile_index.html http://www.neoism.org/squares/cantsin_10.htm -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBNHIOEpaWtjSmRH/5AQHKKgf+KTswuyd3m/tfS/qqg+yAijVavC6KjLs7 XMuAtqA1WrjhWjr+ZG762/QUUyGjFC5RH+fWn7d0EL3Bde+sKrnEWzYijfgof4/j gbbSKEPvm9orrLOHy7sExHMUeqhCTorqizgNuR2tsDOGAdLtgwuotSk7GhjHRIS9 4wrSWydw1/w5aW7uL/EMXUoffzNvojA+ODfmoCCbvOVkYYk5s51rRUh7WLqlVx9c AKvGNsiKCG9rqCaqxcNLuy1wTptaHxGrDKEgU+XanbIUcVSj4sOTvlP91N++4MiK rRRJGI/v9kbgD8lsumcHg6i/VP1tdemC4lRfbtBDqZoLNIZ0SmgZdg== =5+a7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----