A Volunteer in a Suit Has Appeared!

[Timothy C. May]

Lighten up, Perry! My comments in my lighthearted "A Volunteer Suit
Has Appeared" were not directed at you or your position. After all, I
was the one who first mentioned "suits," so my comments were not
targeted at you use of the term.

> In fact, why not just go to the top of a giant tower and get publicity
> for us by shooting random passers by? After all, as you've noted,
> there is no such thing as "bad publicity". I assure you that you will
> be covered by thousands of times more TV and radio stations for such
> an act.

Perry, Perry, Perry! Please, you're taking my comments and
extrapolating them to absurd levels. Is this what you call being
reasonable? I haven't said that *anything* goes, rather, I've
said that the slightly outre image of our group is not ipso facto a
bad thing. But I don't want your time or my time or the list's time
this way.


> Tim agreed in his reply to my message with virtually every substantive
> point that I made. None the less, he makes fun of my comments. He
> agrees that people do judge on appearances. He agrees that the radical
> protest movements of the 1960s were largely failures. Yet he wants us
> to appear unreasonable, and he wants us to emulate these failures.

Again, not true. 

> Tim has reacted with extreme vehemence to the minor question of our
> name. Its a small thing to us personally -- but it could help advance
> our goals. I can only conclude that since Tim more or less admits that
> he's wrong but still insists on his position that he is not acting on
> the basis of rational motivations.

??????

All I can say is that I hope Perry cools off a bit. While the Clipper
Chip is indeed a serious and dismal matter, I see no call for such
anger and charges that I've admitted I'm wrong, that I want our
efforts to fail, that I want us to appear unreasonable, and that I am
"not acting on the basis of rational motivations."

It's clear Perry doesn't like the name of our group. Repeating this
over and over again does not seem to be all that produtive.

And the issues go beyond that of the mere name, which is a relatively
minor issue. My post about "respectability" yesterday had much more to
do with addressing the calls by some that our agenda be changed (e.g.,
reducing discussion of crypto anarchy, of guerilla distribution of
software, of offshore remailers, of digital money, of money
laundering, and the like), that we deemphasize the "crypto rebel"
aspects and instead adopt a more mainstream line.

It's clear that some are uncomfortable with these crypto rebel issues,
these discussions on the list, and the possible repercussions. Well,
these are the topics that got us started, and the latest Clipper Chip
is no reason for us to turn into a carbon copy of the CPSR, EFF, and
ACLU.

Nor is it a reason to lose our sense of humor about things.


-Tim May

P.S. I'm quite serious that my little joke about Sternlight was not
directed at Perry personally. I had already responded at length, and
quite reasonably (I thought) to his comments. The Sternlight point
came as I was reading Sternie's posts in sci.crypt and realized that
what he (Sternlight) seems to want more than anything else is to be
the "voice of reason" in the crypto debate. Hence my satire.

If I'd wanted to satirize Perry, which I can't honestly say I've
wanted to do, I'd've used some kind of material from him, or his kind
of words. 

Cheers.

-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay at netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.