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Cyphernomicon 16.5

Crypto Anarchy:
Changes are Coming


   16.5.1. Technology is dramatically altering the nature of
            governments.
           - It may sound like newage trendiness, but strong crypto is
              "technological empowerment." It literally gives power to
              individuals. Like Sam Colt, it makes them equal.
           - "Politics has never given anyone lasting freedom, and it
              never will. Anything gained through politics will be lost
              again as soon as the society feels threatened. If most
              Americans have never been oppressed by the government
              (aside from an annual mugging) it is because most of them
              have never done anything to threaten the government's
              interests." [Mike Ingle, 1994-01-01]
           + Thesis: Strong crypto is a good thing
             - tool against governments of all flavors, left and right
             - religious freedom
             - personal choice
   16.5.2. Dangers of democracy in general and electronic democracy in
            particular
           - mob rule, rights of minority ignored
           - too many things get decided by vote that have no business
              being voted on
           - "don't tax me...", De Tocqueville's warning
           + electronic democracy is even worse
             - moves further from republican, representative system to
                electronc mob rule
             - too rapid a system
             - Detweiler's "electrocrasy" (spelling?)...brain-damaged,
                poorly thought-out
   16.5.3. The collapse of democracy is predicted by many
           + the "tipping factor" exceeded, with real taxation rates at
              50% or more in most developed countries, with conditions of
              "taxation without representation" far beyond anything in
              American colonial times
             - with professional politicians...and mostly millionaires
                running for office
             - the Cincinnatus (sp?) approach of going into government
                just for a few years, then returning to the farm or
                business, is a joke
           + rise of nominalism [argued by James Donald]
             - "After Athenian democracy  self destructed, the various
                warring parties found that they could only have peace if
                they disowned omnipotent government.  They put together a
                peace agreement that in part proclaimed limits to
                government,  in part acknowledged inherent limits to what
                was proper for governments to do  and in part guaranteed
                that the government would not go beyond what it was
                proper for government to do, that the majority could not
                do as it pleased with the minority, that not any act of
                power was a law, that law was not merely whatever the
                government willed.
                
                They did not agree on a constitution but agreed to
                respect an unwritten constitution that already existed in
                some sense.
                
                A similar arrangement underlies the American constitution
                (now defunct) and the English declaration of right (also
                defunct)
                
                The problem with such formal peace agreements is that
                they can only be put together after government has
                substantially collapsed.  Some of us wish to try other
                possibilities in the event of collapse.
                
                The American constitution collapsed because of the rise
                of nominalist theories "The constitution says whatever
                the courts say that it says." [James Donald, 1994-08-31]
           - War on Drugs, conspiracy charges, random searches,
              emergency preparedness orders (Operation Vampire Killer,
              Operation Night Train, REX-84). The killings of more than a
              dozen reporters and tipsters over the past decade, many of
              them covering the Iran-Contra story, the drug deals, the
              CIA's dealings...the Farm appears to be "swamping" more and
              more of these troublemakers in the headlong march toward
              fascism.
           + De Tocqueville's warning that the American experiment in
              democracy would last only until voters discovered they
              could pick the pockets of others at the ballot box
             - a point reached about 60 years ago
             - (prior to the federal income tax and then the "New Deal,"
                there were systemic limitations on this ability to the
                pockets of others, despite populist yearnings by
                some....after the New Deal, and the Great Society, the
                modern era of runaway taxation commenced.)
   16.5.4. Depredations of the State
           + "Discrimination laws"..choice no longer allowed
             - the strip club in LA forced to install wheelchair access-
                -for the dancers!
             - age no longer allowed to be a factor...gag!
           + democracy run rampant....worst fears of Founders
             - votes on everything...
           - gun control, seizures, using zoning laws (with FFL
              inspections as informants)
           - welfare state,...Murray, inner cities made worse...theft
           - "currency export" laws...how absurd that governments
              attempt to control what folks do with their own money!
   16.5.5. Things are likely to get worse, financially (a negative
            view,though there are also reasons to be optimistic)
           + a welfare state that is careening toward the edge of a
              cliff...escalating spending, constantly increasing national
              debt (with no signs that it will ever be paid down)
             - pension burdens are rising dramatically, according to
                "Economist", 1994-08.
           - the link to crypto is that folks had better find ways to
              immunize themselves from the coming crunch
           + Social Security, other pension plans are set to take 30-40%
              of all GDP
             - too many promies, people living longer
             - estimate: $20 trillion in "unfunded liabilities"
           - health care expectations... growing national debt
   16.5.6. Borders are becoming transparent to data...terabytes a day
            are flowing across borders, with thousands of data formats
            and virtually indistinguishable from other messages.
            Compressed files, split files, images, sounds, proprietary
            encryption formats, etc.  Once can _almost_ pity the NSA in
            the hopelessness of their job.
 

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