are we being hysterical no in article qpg finn dns nmsu edu amolitor nmsu edu andrew molitor writes in article tcmayc m xv jex netcom com tcmay netcom com timothy c may writes but is it any worse than the current unsecure system it becomes much worse of course if the government then uses this clinton clipper to argue for restrictions on unapproved encryption this is the main concern of most of us i think the camel s nose in the tent etc not to pick on mr may in particular of course but isn t this kind of the domino theory as john gilmore has pointed out repeatedly if you produce the infrastructure that would permit a police state to function all that is required to suddenly find yourself living in one is a change of attitude on the part of the government our constitution was built by men who had to risk their lives to ensure freedom in our country they designed the system to make it difficult for tyranny to arise for instance one of the reasons the fourth amendment was put there was to make it harder for the government to try to make smuggling a crime think i jest john hancock made all his money smuggling rum which is after all a drug think about it the government has everyones keys in escrow and the fbi gets their pet wiretap without leaving the office scheme there is a coup which happens every day all around the world within hours everyone in the country who might oppose the tyrants is being monitored more closely than ever before possible without the tools being in place a tyranny cannot stand with tools like this in place a tyrannical dictatorship could actually be successfully imposed why give the government tools with which to enslave you maybe you can trust bill clinton but are you willing to tell me that you can trust every government that will ever arise in the u s hereafter i am not willing to make that leap of faith tim may whose sig block may get him busted in the new regime isn t this just a little melodramatic i m a political dissident as such i am acutely aware of what happens to political dissidents in most of the world in most of the world i could be killed for my beliefs call amnesty international some time to find out what happens to dissidents in most of the world all that seperates the u s from most of those places is a thin piece of parchment in the national archives thats being constantly more and more eroded by such farces as the war on drugs coups have happened in countries that have had stable democracies for over a hundred years governments throughout history have fallen no government has lasted for more than a few hundred years often they are replaced by dictatorships do you really believe so intensely that it could never ever ever happen here that you are willing to bet your own life and the lives of your children and other loved ones on it if we construct the tools with which tyranny could be enforced we make it orders of magnitude more likely that it could happen because if it happened with the tools already in place it could actually stick naive fools such as our leadership believe they can protect us where hundreds that have gone before have failed thriving democracies led by men far more skillfull than bill clinton have fallen to dictatorship rome had a thriving republic run by exquisitely skilled men before they became a tyranny i for one am unwilling to trust that it could never happen here only hubris would allow us to believe we are immune to what has happened elsewhere perry metzger pmetzger shearson com laissez faire laissez passer le monde va de lui meme
