more on Your people are growing increasingly worried about a 'police state.' For such an educated audience,

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bob Frankston <Bob2-0406 () bobf frankston com>
Date: August 5, 2004 7:10:59 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net, 'Ip' <ip () v2 listbox com>
Cc: 'Brad Templeton' <brad () templetons com>
Subject: RE: [IP] Your people are growing increasingly worried about a 
'police state.' For such an educated audience,

The danger is not a "police state".

It's a well-behaved state in which only good ideas are allowed. The 
problem
is that it presumes as single universal and absolute definition of good.
We've been this throughout history.

Change and innovation are invariably problematic but without them we 
have no
way to refresh society. The danger is in the naïve assumption that 
debate is
unpatriotic. Secrecy allows really dangerous ideas to fester even 
without
intentional corruptions the ideas become corrupt due to the lack of 
reality
checking.

It is the attitude that presumes we can triumph over evil because we 
have
goodness on our side. We see the results in today's world.

It also places science in a position that subservient to a higher 
purpose.
It seeks confirmation rather than testing.

A police state? Too obvious. Who needs a police state when the good 
people
rule? The minority is, by definition, wrong and must be suppressed and
punished for the sake of the goodness. Otherwise there would be anarchy 
and
then we'd need a police state to protect the good people.

As Brad points out, we manufacture demons to match our expectations. The
wars on drugs, pornography, satanic cults etc ...

I don't fear the police state ... I fear people doing me good.

As Brad points out, free states are an aberration because they tolerate 
the
immoral and incorrect and uncomfortable.

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