Re: The Utility of Privacy
At 06:54 PM 11/18/96 -0500, Black Unicorn wrote:
Not long ago, a college education was essentially a death warrant in Cambodia. Prior to that, a degree was considered a good thing there. People saw no reason to hid the fact that they had been in school. Trouble is, things changed.
Oh, come on. That could never happen here.
Where have I heard that line before? Sandy was giving an actual example of a general problem. Educated people were executed in Cambodia. That may not happen here but it is very common for innocent legal activities or characteristics to later become very illegal and subject to punishment. Examples: Judaism in Germany in 1900 vs 1940 Smoking in America in 1950 vs 1996 Spanking children in Sweden 1950 vs 1996 Owning gold in America in 1930 vs 1933 Publishing and distributing "Discovery of the Orgone" in the 1940s vs the 1950s The problem is that you can't always guess in advance which of your behaviors or characteristics will get you in trouble later. The fewer people who know your affairs the less trouble you will be in when things change. DCF "When I was born, smoking was a virtue and sodomy a vice."
On Tue, 19 Nov 1996, Duncan Frissell wrote:
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 06:31:07 -0500 From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com> To: Black Unicorn <unicorn@schloss.li>, Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com> Cc: Huge Cajones Remailer <nobody@huge.cajones.com>, cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: Re: The Utility of Privacy
At 06:54 PM 11/18/96 -0500, Black Unicorn wrote:
Not long ago, a college education was essentially a death warrant in Cambodia. Prior to that, a degree was considered a good thing there. People saw no reason to hid the fact that they had been in school. Trouble is, things changed.
Oh, come on. That could never happen here.
Where have I heard that line before? Sandy was giving an actual example of a general problem. Educated people were executed in Cambodia. That may not happen here but it is very common for innocent legal activities or characteristics to later become very illegal and subject to punishment.
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participants (2)
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Black Unicorn -
Duncan Frissell