RE: Big Brother Is Your Friend

[Mark Jeftovic <markjr@privateworld.com>]

[: hacktivism :]

At 07:32 PM 9/20/99 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Fantastic, an amway-like pyramid of power all concentrated under one
>controller, the entire might of which can be brought to bear against any one
>of it's subjects.  I can hardly wait.
>

I guess the point I was trying to get across there was that the level of
surveillance will eventually be ubiquitous to the point of being Orwellian
(in fact many argue that it already is) but that it won't (or hasn't)
come about from a conspiracy at the top, it's the result of many little
surveillance operations coagulating into a state of constant scrutiny.

>
>Who says it is going to go two way?  I can't see that happening.
>

Well, that's up to people like us to make sure it goes two ways. Sure,
your typical law enforcement official might be nodding and smiling 
at the prospect of everything I said coming to pass, until they get
to the part where they're under the same magnifying glass as everyone
else.

We're supposed to be hactivists, right? I'm not *condoning* the
surveillance society, I'm guessing it's unavoidable, but possible
to be effected into something a little more tolerable. It could go
both ways if people take measures to make sure that any new surveillance
technology introduced to scrutinize the public gets turned back on
their wielders as fast as possible.

>> Like Brin said, everybody wants privacy for themselves and 
>> accountability
>> for everyone else. 
>
>I think most people would settle for a balance between the two.  Universal
>surveillance will make this impossible.

Well, balance is probably always better. Extremes usually suck. Take for
example the extreme pervasiveness of commercial culture and the complete
saturation of our consiousness with things like advertising. It's extreme,
it sucks, but for the most part 90% of the population probably doesn't
even notice it anymore. 

>Don't you find it alarming that at the end of the article Brin enumerated
>the requirements for the utopia he anticipates, and they included open
>government and a vigilant press?  Since it has been revealed that the CIA
>has been smuggling cocaine into America and then been authorised by the DOJ
>to lie about it, how open do you feel your government is (assuming you are
>American)?  I feel that the corruptibility of the press has been so
>thoroughly proven that it requires no further discussion.  I think Brin's
>opinions on this issue are worth shit, he doesn't seem to be living on the
>same planet as the rest of us.
>

Well, I don't discount them out of hand, but that's me. (I'm Canadian, btw)

regards, mark


----
Mark Jeftovic, <markjr@easydns.com>
easyDNS Technologies Inc. http://www.easyDNS.com/


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