Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Re: Britain's sad decline of liberty a warning for U.S.: Dan Gillmor on Technology Thu Jul 05 15:15:09 EDT 2001
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2001 19:00:31 -0400
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2001 12:11:31 +1200 From: Hamish MacEwan <Default () Hamish MacEwan gen nz> To: farber () cis upenn edu On Thu, Jul 05, 2001 at 19:48 -0400, David Farber wrote:[ My only comment right now is: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin, ~1784 Dave]The increase in enforceability, which the correspondent lauds as a desirable outcome of surveillance for a number of crimes that we find either abhorrent or inconvenient, misses the point that at some time, inevitably if Voltaire and others are to be believed, such mechanisms will be used for other purposes. Enforcement of the law is always in tension with the consent of the governed. [a bit like copyright and fair use... <grin>] Screwing down the lid tighter and tighter with progressively more invasive surveillance, will pay a negative dividend beyond the short term improvement in crime statistics. It is probably another short-term cost-effective solution to behavioural problems that will at some point explode. We need not bother about the poor or distressed, simply enforce behaviour rather than addressing the causes. For every ten people who are clipping at the branches of evil, you're lucky to find one who's hacking at the roots. -- Henry David Thoreau Surveillance is that clipping. Hamish.
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- IP: Re: Britain's sad decline of liberty a warning for U.S.: Dan Gillmor on Technology Thu Jul 05 15:15:09 EDT 2001 David Farber (Jul 05)
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- IP: Re: Britain's sad decline of liberty a warning for U.S.: Dan Gillmor on Technology Thu Jul 05 15:15:09 EDT 2001 David Farber (Jul 06)