On Wednesday 18 July 2001 09:07, you wrote:
> I have come to understand that in life we must weigh the good against the
> bad in everything.
And thus evade having to stand up for any absolute such as freedom of
movement or expression or personal privacy.
If this monitoring can rid us of pedafiles, rapists,
> murders, thiefs, and other undesireables in our society, then I say go for
> it.
Undesireables? What a shifting and nebulous term. Beware, o' intellectual,
that it does not turn to bite you. Moreover, pedophiles, murderers, rapists,
thieves and such rarely have their pictures taken before being apprehended.
Whom then, are the cameras scanning for?
> I for one have nothing to fear from the police.
Yet.
> They can interview me anytime they like or anywhere for that matter.
As someday they may. But remember that when the "interview" occurs, it will
be on their turf and also conducted any way they like. There is a case in
Detroit courts *right now* regarding people being kidnapped and jailed
without trial or opportunity for outside contact. One cop was quoted as
saying "Otherwise they won't tell us what we need to know." Another was
quoted as saying the practice was a valuable police tool and would continue.
Think of the effect on your life if you were simply to drop off the map for a
couple of weeks with only a wild-eyed story about being kidnapped by the cops
to tell upon your return. Would your family believe your? How about your
employer? If you had a heart attack during the "interview", do you think your
body would EVER be found? Don't be such a pollyanna. Police respect for the
Constitution and enabling laws is not, in any country, universal.
>They have my respect and will continue to have it.
see "Chauvin, Nicholas"
> I wouldn't have a job where you have a target painted on your chest by
> anyone with an extremist view.
Do not be deluded. There are NO safe harbors. None. There never have been.
We have known this was coming or didn't you
> read 'Brave New World' or '1984'
Those are not inspired prophecy. They are the views of individuals and hardly
inescapable. "All that is required for evil to triumph is for men of good
will to do nothing." (Auth. unknown to me)
> BTW this thread belongs on another site, not here in discussions of
> Linux.
>
> Michael C. Rock
>
And to think we laugh when the ostrich hides <i> its </i> head in the sand.
With all due deference, everything you said (except the reference to the
futurist books) was also said with similar earnestness in Germany in the late
1930's.
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