<snip> o What do you think about [1-2]? o Contemporary parallels? (use of crypto as an aggravating factor in punishment, etc.) o Finally, how could [3] come about in the context of crypto (and other digital freedoms)? <snip> ======================================================================= Electronic Journal of Sociology (1996) ISSN: 1176 7323 Cyber McCarthyism: Witch Hunts in the Living Room http://www.sociology.org/content/vol002.001/ling.html <snippage> [1] "This paper examines the potential for electronic communication to spark mass hate such as that seen in colonial Salem and during the McCarthy period." [2] "The elements which go into the development of mass hate include the following: 1) strains on the community through the recognition of a moral boundary crisis and identification of villains, 2) crystallizing of patterned labeling through a degradation ceremony, 3) appropriation of the social apparatus and suppression of critique mechanisms, 4) restoration of a normal situation." [3] "Finally, the fervour came under control. In both of these cases this occurred when the mass hate became a serious threat to the established power structure, members of the government in the case of colonial Salem and the Army in the case of McCarthyism." <end snippage> ======================================== Tim's comments for historical reference. ========================================

"On the Internet, no one knows you're a bitch."

Since the paper is so flawed, I'm not sure it's worth discussing at length. But, briefly, is crypto as threatening as witches were? Far from it. It -- and its derivative technologies, such as anonymity -- seems to be

more as a way to reclaim lost privacy rather than a new and unusual

==================== And, from Declan... ==================== perceived threat.

In that sense, it is a conservative technology. (This could change, and certainly the intelligence community is hand-waving about terrorists again, but I doubt it'll have much luck.)

-Declan

======================== And this, from Choate.... ======================== http://groups.yahoo.com/group/psychohistory/message/2810 ~Aimee