~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, On Thu, 13 Jul 1995, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
As unpleasant as the congress is, it isn't the enemy. The governmental forces desiring control are not the same as the congress.
I'm not so sure. Both politicos and bureaucrats go into their respective lines of work for many reasons. One of the main reasons--in my opinion--is a lust to control others. Being the "others," we should resist this tendancy. This begins with the realization that most of them *are* the enemy and acting accordingly.
This is not to say that we shouldn't be widely deploying crypto -- we should. (Of course, offshore sites will always have crypto available, but...)
Yes, what we really need is easy, drop-in, point-and-click PGP for the computer neophytes. And we need to give it away to all of them. I wish I know how to accomplish all that. My "wish list" also includes a fantasy in which someone (hopefully, a Cypherpunk) cracks some NSA developed, secret algorithm, crypto system, preferably causing some sycophantic company or organization to lose a bundle. Ah, dreams. S a n d y P.S. My 84 year old mother went in to buy a refrigerator from Sears or Monkey Wards or whomever. She picked out a top-of-the-line Tappan. However, when she was getting ready to pay, the salesperson began to ask her a series of questions which included her age and social security number. My mom said, "Just stop right there. If you want to ask all this personal information, I'll just buy it somewhere else." The stopped asking questions and took her check. I think Nancy Reagan had a good idea there. Just say `NO'. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~