Rendering Unto Ceasar

[davidbrin at cts.com]

R. A. Hettinga writes:


>At 3:31 AM -0700 on 6/29/02, davidbrin at cts.com paints a picture out
>of the second "Planet of the Apes" movie, Roddy McDowell, Ceasar
>Romero, and all...:
>
>Brin said:
>> An AGGRESSIVE  approach, barging into the citadels of power,
>> ripping the blinds, opening the windows, protecting the
>> whistleblowers, siccing elites against each other, unleashing a
>> myriad news-hounds and generally stripping the big boys naked!
>
>Hettinga comments:
In other words, using the nation-state (a mob by any other name
>smells just same) to solve a technological, a physical, problem.
>Shall we legislate pi, while we're at it?

Brin's new remise:
The attempt to paraphrase me, above, using "in other words", is yet another
example of the profound dishonesty we're witnessing here.  It truly is
pathetic when people feel a need to cram words and meanings into the mouths
of other people, in blatant attempts to make them look foolish or to erect
strawmen to knock down.

In fact, Hettinga's "in other words" above has no relationship to anything I
believe, nor to anything I've said.  And certainly no relationship to the
very paragraph to which he refers!

This is truly dismal.



>I think my original point about Brin "trusting" the nation-state --
>one I thought fairly tangential to my review of Wayner's excellent
>"Translucent Databases", though apparently not tangential enough --
>is proven above, and throughout Dr. Brin's latest fulmination. Meet
>the new mob, same as the old mob, with a nod to Mr. Townsend and the
>now late Mr. Entwhistle.

Please note, not an iota of actual citation or specificity.  He avoids
addressing the central issue -- that he crammed words and meanings into my
mouth that have no bearing on my views - a harmful act since others might
believe him.  Moreover, he did not offer me a chance to see or comment. 
Moreover he abused quotation marks.

These are my "mob" actions... apparently Hettinga can do whatever he wants
to others, but calls it 'mob' when one of those people explicityly and
carefully holds him accountable for deliberate untruths.

>Sure, we're going to have ubiquitous *supervision* of *property*
>using exponentially cheaper charge-coupled camera devices attached to
>geodesic internetworks. Moore's, Metcalfe's, Gilder's(?) "laws", will
>not be denied. But it will be increasingly done by property owners,
>and not by nation states. I think that Brin used his entire book to
>grope for that same point, but, apparently, he can't see beyond his
>own statist nose to the ultimate answer to the problem he poses
>there.


At last, a paraphrasing the glancingly touches my actual views.  Cameras
HAVE proliferated as much in the US as in Britain - though mostly into
private hands, rather than the police.  This bothers me because ALL elites
should be held accountable.  Still, dispersal of vision among as wide a
variety of elites as possible is certainly preferable.

As for 'statist' views... again, pathetic.  I am keynote speaker for this
year's Libertarian National Convention.  Guys like Hettinga hurl such words
at anything they do not understand.  If it's not their standard line, it
must be Big Brother.  Feh.



>Dr. Brin says something about never hearing of "society", much less a
>nation-state, that succeeded in an atmosphere of ubiquitous personal
>privacy,  and, oddly enough, I believe he's right. First, we haven't
>been able to organize in large groups without force monopolies until
>now, and second, of course, nation-states probably can't survive in a
>world of ubiquitous strong financial cryptography and geodesic
>internetworks.

Fine.  He is proposing an experimental new kind of society.  I am willing to
listen.  Meanwhile, however, I will try to defend THIS society using the
tools that have created more freedom and wealth than any other.  Forcing
accountability upon elites is the method that has worked.  A burden of proof
falls upon the romantics who propose that we switch to an entirely different
strategy of hiding from each other behind masks.

In The Transparent Society I pose many many problems with this approach. 
Instead of making caricatures to avoid arguing, ANSWER those problems, one
by one.  Convince us this untested prescription will work better than one
that is already working well.

You may succeed, I have a more open mind than yours, apparently.

But for now, I consider masks to be craven.  You'll find me, bare-faced,
confronting statists and aristocrats and plutocrats and other elites
demanding that they strip.

Enough.  You haven't a clue what I believe Hettinga. You have proved it so
leave me OUT of your screeds.  Stop lying about me, or I'll hold you
accountable again.

Others, please let me know if/when he starts in again.  Better yet, go
listen to honest men.


With cordial regards,

David Brin 
www.davidbrin.com