Digital Liberty by Bill Frezza, aka DigitaLiberty

[grarpamp]

https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/10652/1995_Winter.pdf

                                   Digital Liberty
                                         by Bill Frezza

From: email list server
To: cpsr-announce at Sunnyside.COM
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 18:38:13 -0800
Subject: DigitaLiberty

Friends of Liberty,

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the arrival of cyberspace is
destined to engender
a fundamental discontinuity in the course of human relations. This is
a source of great
optimism and opportunity for those of us who believe in freedom.

Many of you who participate in the lively debates that take place in
these forums have
seen a number of activist organizations spring up claiming to
represent the cause of
freedom. And if you are like me you have cheered these groups on only
to watch them get
bogged down in a quagmire of realpolitics.

It is a sad fact that the beast in Washington has evolved into a self-
perpetuating engine
expert at co-opting the principles of even the most ardent reformers.
Slowly but surely all
those who engage the system are ultimately absorbed into the
mainstream miasma of
majoritarianism. For example, what can be more discouraging than watching an
organization that started out as a cyber-civil liberties group shift
its focus to creating new
forms of government entitlements while endorsing intrusive wiretap
legislation because
they didn't want to jeopardize their influence and prestige amongst
the Washington power
elite?

Some of us believe we can seek ultimate redress at the polls. Many
pundits have declared
our recent national elections a watershed in politics, a turning point
that represents the
high water mark of big government. Nonsense. The names have changed,
the chairs have
been rearranged, but the game remains the same. The so-called
"choices" we are presented
with are false, hardly better than the mock one-party elections held
by failed totalitarian
regimes. There must be a better way.

I would like to announce the formation of a new group - DigitaLiberty
- that has chosen a
different path. We intend to bypass the existing political process. We
reject consensus
building based on the calculus of compromise. Instead we plan to leave
the past behind,
much as our pioneering forefathers did when they set out to settle new
lands. It is our
mission to create the basis for a different kind of society. If you
would like to join us I
invite you to read the information below.

Yours in freedom,

Bill Frezza
Co-founder, DigitaLiberty
December 6, 1994


What is DigitaLiberty?

DigitaLiberty is an advocacy group dedicated to the principled defense
of freedom in
cyberspace. We intend to conduct this defense not by engaging in
traditional power
politics but by setting an active, persuasive example - creating
tangible opportunities for
others to join us as we construct new global communities.

We believe deeply in free markets and free minds and are convinced
that we can construct
a domain in which the uncoerced choices of individuals supplant the
social compact
politics of the tyranny of the majority.


Is DigitaLiberty a political party or a lobbying group?

Neither.

DigitaLiberty does not seek to educate or influence politicians in the
hope of obtaining
legislation favorable to our constituents. We plan to make politicians
and legislators
irrelevant to the future of network based commerce, education,
leisure, and social
intercourse.

DigitaLiberty does not seek to persuade a majority of the electorate
to adopt views which
can then be forced upon the minority. We hope to make majoritarianism
irrelevant. We
invite only like minded individuals to help us build the future according to our
uncompromised shared values.


What do you hope to accomplish?

DigitaLiberty is not hopeful that widespread freedom will come to the
physical world, at
least not in our lifetime. Too many constituencies depend upon the largess and
redistributive power of national governments and therefore oppose
freedom and the
individual responsibility it entails. But we do believe that liberty
can and will prevail in
the virtual domains we are building on the net and that national
governments will be
powerless to stop us. We believe that cyberspace will transcend
national borders, national
cultures, and national economies. We believe that no one will hold
sovereignty over this
new realm because coercive force is impotent in cyberspace.

In keeping with the self-organizing nature of on-line societies we
believe we will chose to
invent new institutions to serve our varied economic and social
purposes. DigitaLiberty
intends to be in the forefront of the discovery and construction of
these institutions.
But what about the construction of the "Information


Superhighway"?

The fabric of cyberspace is rapidly being built by all manner of
entities espousing the full
range of political and economic philosophies. While political activity
can certainly
accelerate or retard the growth of the net in various places and times
it cannot stop it nor
can it effectively control how the net will be used.

Our focus is not on the institutions that can and will impact the
building of the physical
"information highway" but on those that will shape life on the net as
an ever increasing
portion of our productive activities move there.


What makes you think cyberspace will be so different?

The United States of America was the only country in history ever to
be built upon an
idea. Unfortunately, this idea was lost as we slowly traded away our
liberties in exchange
for the false promise of security.

DigitaLiberty believes that technology can set us free. The economies
of the developed
world are now making a major transition from an industrial base to an
information base.
As they do, the science of cryptology will finally and forever
guarantee the unbreachable
right of privacy, protecting individuals, groups, and corporations
from the prying eyes and
grasping hands of sovereigns. We will all be free to conduct our lives, and most
importantly our economic relations, as we each see fit.

Cyberspace is also infinitely extensible. There will be no brutal
competition for
lebensraum. Multiple virtual communities can exist side by side and
without destructive
conflict, each organized according to the principles of their members.
We seek only to
build one such community, a community based on individual liberty.
Others are free to
build communities based on other principles, even diametrically
opposed principles. But
they must do so without our coerced assistance.

Effective communities will thrive and grow. Dysfunctional communities
will wither and
die. And for the first time in human history, rapacious societies will
no longer have the
power to make war on their neighbors nor can bankrupt communities take
their neighbors
down with them.


What does this have to do with my real life?
I can't eat data. I don't live in a computer.

Yes, but imagine the ultimate impact of mankind's transition from an
agrarian economy to
an industrial economy to an information economy. Our founding fathers would have
consider anyone insane who predicted that a nation of 250 million
could feed itself with
fewer than 3% of its citizens involved in agriculture. Similarly,
economist and politicians
trapped in the policies of the past lament our move from a
manufacturing economy to a
knowledge worker and service based economy. We see this as a cause to rejoice.

The day will come when fewer than 5% of the citizens of a nation of 1
billion will be
involved in manufacturing - if we still bother calling geographically
defined entities
"nations". What will the rest of us be doing? We will be providing
each other with an
exploding array of services and we will be creating, consuming, and exchanging
information. Most of this will occur entirely within or be mediated at
least in part by our
activities in cyberspace.

Many of us will earn a very good living on the net. Our race, our
religion, our gender, our
age, our physical appearance and limitations will all be irrelevant
and undetectable. Hard
working individuals from underdeveloped nations who in the past might
have been forced
to emigrate in search of economic freedom and opportunity can now
build productive
lives in cyberspace. And much if not all of the wealth we create that
we do not transform
into visible physical assets will be ours to keep and use, beyond the
grasp of sovereigns.


What is the purpose of this forum?

The DigitaLiberty Forum is a place where like minded individuals can
share their views,
observations, and strategies related to the development of virtual
communities based on
freedom. It is a place where people can exchange information and
advice about how they
have developed extra-territorial business and social relationships -
away from the
influence and outside the jurisdiction of governments. It is a forum
for the posting of
essays, questions, and ideas on the topic of liberty. It is a place
where we can meet and
debate the forms that our new institutions might take and discuss the
practical problems
and responsibilities that freedom entail.

In time as our technology matures some of us will move on to more
ambitious projects,
launch other programs, and begin our virtual migration from the swamp of coerced
collectivism. Best of all, there will be no need to physically move to
'Galt's Gulch' or
escape to a floating 'Freedonia'. We can all participate in this
exodus without hastily
quitting our jobs or disrupting our lives. And as a larger and larger
portion of our
economic and social activities move onto the net we will create a new
society, open to all
with the will to enter. This new world will be interleaved with the
physical world in which
we now live and yet will be separate. And free.

Join us as we begin the journey.


Who can join DigitaLiberty?

The DigitaLiberty Forum is open to anyone that can honestly answer yes
to the following
two questions:

    1. I renounce the use of coercive force as a tool of social or
economic policy.
    2. I do not derive the majority of my income from funds taken from
taxpayers.

How do I join DigitaLiberty?

If you qualify, send a message to DigitaLiberty-request at phantom.com
with the words
"SUBSCRIBE" in the subject line and the message body as follows

                                  SUBSCRIBE DigitaLiberty

And welcome to the future.