On 4/5/16, Ismail Kizir <ikizir@gmail.com> wrote:
Dan Geer said: Anyone who voluntarily uses a device whose inherent function requires continuous connectivity has no, repeat no, reasonable expectation of not being tracked.
Problem is, people (and the people) either: - Did (or do not, or no longer, or would not) grant explicit permission for such. - Either way, they have no real idea the true depth of what's going on, not even at the surface, not because they're stupid or doing something else, but because you keep it secret and don't tell them, even when they ask, both of which are evil, in particular while under all the other strange forces being applied to them. Like braindead Facebook and TV. "Reasonable expectation" has turned out to be, not open truth and permission, but a linguistic game, not for the people, but one continually modified upon and against them.
Someone said: [The] human brain ... Oh wait -- these have no reasonable expectation of privacy. Let the Nuremburg Trials re-commence.
Every year same goes by, is another set of guilotines discreetly readied.
For a long time, I have been following the discussions on the list. I have a political sciences education, which makes it more interesting for me. In my personal opinion, we are living one of the rare moments, the great constitution of founding fathers is not enough!
European constitutions(except U.K, which is also a Anglo-Saxon country) are usually very vey long constitutional texts. And we criticize this very much.
As students, we were telling to our professors that we love short constitutions. And they were replying: "Everybody loves short constituions. But it has a potential danger: Juristocracy. Short constitutions need to be 'interpreted' by the 'judges' and/or by the administrators, and, in case they have bad intentions, the character of the regime may change to oligarchy".
This is one of the rare moments of having a long constitution is better: For example, 22th article of Turkish Constitution(https://global.tbmm.gov.tr/docs/constitution_en.pdf) simply tells:"Everyone has the freedom of communication. Privacy of communication is fundamental....". The judges has still very strong rights, but limited!
Unfortunately, the actual American political system can't be identified as a democracy. And it's very far from Founding Fathers's ideals.
It's simply an oligarchy.
Bi-partist system, which doesn't give any hope to "really" change anything(proof: Low turnout rates for national elections) Elitism ... Networks(free-masons, clubs, regional networks, ethnic networks etc.) A governmental system which "destroys the citizen against the government"
I humbly want to recommend to everybody in this group, to read Wright Mills's extraordinary book called "Power Elite".
This book, is the "masterpiece" of political science studies in the domain of "elite theory". It's an academic book, but, everybody interested in politics can easily read and understand it. You will feel like reading a very high quality novel. It's about United States!
I gave my graduate thesis on "political elites". Mills's "work" is so good that, I decided to not to become an academician, because, I have nothing to tell more than he told on that book. It gives examples from his own country, United States, of 1950's, but he's really telling us Turkey of 2016 :)
In Europe, American Intellectualism is usually underestimated due to its pragmatist characteristics and lack of theoretical background. But I know very well that there are very good American intellectuals with theoretical background(as Wright Mills). And this list refreshes my hopes for American intellectualism.
And again, my humble opinion as a political scientist is that, United States needs "theoretical intellectual discussions about its political system and personal freedoms"! And only intellectual can do it. It's very important, because the rest of the world also depends on it.
Thank you Ismail Kizir