On Thu, 15 May 1997, Huge Cajones Remailer wrote:
"All that matters is how we die: shall we offer our bodies helplessly, like cattle, to the knife, or, refusing passively to await the end shall we turn the strength of our anger to one last battle, til, daring and doing, we fall, drenched with their blood, amongst the heaped bodies and weapons of our dying enemies?" -- Livy Book XXV
They couldn't move with their wealth out of the way, so the alternatives were limited.
We've seen many sentiments like this one on the list lately. Such sentiments are understandable and have a certain visceral appeal. And it is good that people who are thinking along these lines are also telling their friends on the list instead of censoring themselves.
But, these strategies are not the best we can choose to achieve our true goals. Few of us wish to be martyrs.
I worry about the government about the same as I worry about the people who will be the barbarians when the government fails (or those who already are ignoring government - There are some locations I have a risk of being shot if I go). If government has any purpose, it is to protect me from barbarians, which is something they are failing at. If they can't or won't do so, why do I need government? The internet causes data to flow like water - eventually going around any obstacle. If you close off a dam completely, it will eventually overflow. And things like titles and money are more like data than physical objects. In a few years, the government will be fighting against obsolecense and irrelevancy. This is only scary because they have weaponry. Home Schooling is now easy since teaching materials can be had easily, and you can contact thousands of people to form a support group. Government money will be replaced by digital commodity warehouse receipts - do you trust lots of people who will go out of business if they cheat more than the federal reserve and FDIC? Email will replace most of the first class mail business post office, and web sites most of the third. SPAM is being solved by the net itself (how long would it take congress to pass a bill, then pass another one the next year to fix the problems in the first...). Government as the Nanny that protects and provides for you will disappear since everything that can be reduced to data will be routed out of their hands, just as the current democracies replaced the monarchies when education was spread from the elite who had time to study to the masses. I don't know what will replace it, but I know I will have far more control over and responsibility for my own life. And this may include protecting myself from the barbarians or government who only have and respect violence. If my wealth is not going to be accessible, it makes me a less likely target for either, and if I can get anything I need without going through their devices, they can't threaten to withold something.