Bombings, Surveillance, and Free Societies

[Rich Graves]

I believe this is where I came in...

At 12:51 PM 3/4/96 -0800, tcmay wrote:
>
>Revolutionary theory says of course that this increased clampdown is a
>desired effect of terrorist bombings and attacks. Fear and doubt.
>Revolutionary ends rarely happen by slow, incremental movement. Hundreds of
>examples, from the original "bomb-throwing anarchists" to the modern mix of
>terrorist bands. The Red Brigade in Italy sought a fascist crackdown, and
>the "strategy of tension" is common. (And even revolutionists of crypto
>anarchist persuasion often think laws like the CDA are good in the long
>run, by undermining respect for authority and triggering more extreme
>reactions....)

Well, I think they're wrong. Revolutionary theorists are right about the
*beginning* of the dialectic. Action breeds reaction breeds counterreaction,
and so on. Repression opens up all sorts of new opportunities. Ezekiel, St.
John, Marx, Hitler, Winnie (not Nelson) Mandela, and so on were right about
that.

However, the dialectic eventually stabilizes; not every revolution is
Armageddon. People get tired of revolution and counterrevolution, and yearn
for stability, under *any* regime. That's why otherwise reasonable people
let the Bolsheviks, Nazis, Napoleons, Democrats, and Republicans take power.

Revolution is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're going
to get.

I don't like extremists. But then, I'm a fucking statist.

In South Africa, most of Latin America, and (until a few weeks ago) Palestine
and Northern Ireland, tolerance has taken a few halting steps. You drop your
gun, I'll drop mine. You open up the political process to let me
participate, and I'll open up my processes so that you can trust me too. You
purge the right-wing death squads on your side, I'll purge the left-wing
terrorists on my side.

I'm a firm believer in privacy for individuals, but for groups, of any kind,
popular or unpopular, public or private, I'm not so sure.

-rich
 http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~llurch/