Crypto McCarthyism ...thoughts, gentlemen?

[Aimee Farr]

<snip>
o What do you think about [1-2]?
o Contemporary parallels? (use of crypto as an aggravating factor in
punishment, etc.)
o Finally, how could [3] come about in the context of crypto (and other
digital freedoms)?
<snip>
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Electronic Journal of Sociology (1996)
ISSN: 1176 7323
Cyber McCarthyism: Witch Hunts in the Living Room
http://www.sociology.org/content/vol002.001/ling.html

<snippage>

[1] "This paper examines the potential for electronic communication to spark
mass hate such as that seen in colonial Salem and during the McCarthy
period."

[2] "The elements which go into the development of mass hate include the
following: 1) strains on the community through the recognition of a moral
boundary crisis and identification of villains, 2) crystallizing of
patterned labeling through a degradation ceremony, 3) appropriation of the
social apparatus and suppression of critique mechanisms, 4) restoration of a
normal situation."

[3] "Finally, the fervour came under control. In both of these cases this
occurred when the mass hate became a serious threat to the established power
structure, members of the government in the case of colonial Salem and the
Army in the case of McCarthyism."

<end snippage>

========================================
Tim's comments for historical reference.
========================================

> "On the Internet, no one knows you're a bitch."

====================
And, from Declan...
====================

> Since the paper is so flawed, I'm not sure it's worth discussing at
length.
> But, briefly, is crypto as threatening as witches were? Far from it. It --
> and its derivative technologies, such as anonymity -- seems to be
perceived
> more as a way to reclaim lost privacy rather than a new and unusual
threat.
> In that sense, it is a conservative technology. (This could change, and
> certainly the intelligence community is hand-waving about terrorists
again,
> but I doubt it'll have much luck.)

> -Declan

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And this, from Choate....
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/psychohistory/message/2810



~Aimee