CDR: Re: Al Gore goes cypherpunk?

[Tim May]

At 7:45 PM -0700 10/24/00, James A.. Donald wrote:
>     --
>At 11:39 PM 10/23/2000 -0700, Tim May wrote:
>>  (Sort of comparable to the demands by some on our own list who
>>  periodically demand that list members "denounce" acts of terrorism
>>  or whatever it is they don't like. "If you don't come out against
>>  the bombings of federal buildings, then you are as guilty as the
>>  bombers.")
>
>I of course am in favor of bombing federal buildings.  To judge by 
>the cheer that goes up in the movie theatre during the big scene in 
>"independence day" when Washington gets nuked, I have some company.

Yes, this was quite striking. Many people, even journalists, have 
reported the same observation. There was a visceral reaction to the 
sight of the White House being destroyed from above.

Similarly, crowds went wild as hundreds of cops and feds and SWAT 
ninjas were mowed down in the attack on the police building in "The 
Matrix."

Some lessons there.

(No time to write a piece on this, but perhaps the whole Libertarian 
Party effort is foundering precisely because it has picked the "safe 
and boring" route. Murray Rothbard, for example, has his arcane 
theory about how people may not even take action when someone is 
attacking them...until the attack has actually resulted in injury. 
Many exposed to this kind of thinking, and the "inside baseball" of 
ultra-boring LP conventions, probably lose interest in Libertarian 
issues. Part of human nature, driven by evolutionary pressures, seems 
to be an inclination to act decisively.)


--Tim May
-- 
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon"             | black markets, collapse of governments.