Decline of the Cypherpunks list...Part 19

[Declan McCullagh]

On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 01:45:43PM -0800, Tim May wrote:
> You need to read my long, long essay in "True Names," then. This is 
> more widely available than anything I would waste my time doing for 
> "Body Peircing" or "Skate," even if I wanted to.
> 
> As for writing for "Reason," they haven't asked, and their editorial 
> focus is increasingly statist. Cf. Cathy Young's quote at the bottom of 
> this post.

I disagree. I went to a Reason gathering in Washington last Thursday
and found the staffers there definitely not statist.

But they were Cato-type libertarians. This is not meant to be critical
of the Cato Institute. What I mean is that the folks at the Reason
event worked at Cato and other groups like IHS, CEI, AEI, and so on --
groups that have adopted a mode of advocacy that is more academic and
scholarly than activist.

Instead of saying:
Fuck big government.

They'll say:
As decades of scholarly work in the public choice arena has shown,
government entitlement programs at the federal level result in
continued inefficiencies and rent-seeking.

It's a matter of how you say it. I don't know if that crowd is as
interested in the edgy kind of state-wrecking disruptive technologies
(that will have a greater long-term impact).

-Declan