From: Tyler Durden Sent: Sep 27, 2004 10:00 AM To: roy@rant-central.com Cc: cypherpunks@al-qaeda.net Subject: RE: Mystification of Identity: You Say Yusuf, I Say Youssouf...

Many Cypherpunks view the need to take up crypto arms to stem off an Orwellian, hyper-evil and hyper-competent dictatorship. I'm thinking a more likely (and no less threatening) scenario is one like "Brazil" (ie, the movie).

Yep. It turns out that broad and scary police powers don't make you any smarter or wiser or more careful, they just make it easier for you to insist on obedience and stifle complaints. Post 9/11, flight attendants and airline employees have more authority to order passengers around and deny people boarding, but they're still the same people they were on 9/10, they're presumably only marginally better at spotting terrorists (at least not obviously Arab-looking terrorists). They just have more power, and fewer consequences when they screw up. ...

-TD

--John Kelsey