<div>Lee Corbin wrote:</div> <div>>> If, and it is a large if, nut jobs could easily take out cities, then<BR>>> I would still prefer to live under that chance occurrence than the<BR>>> very certain evils of total surveillance.<BR>><BR>> Your feelings will change the day that several million people die<BR>> in San Francisco or New York.<BR>><BR>Samantha replied:<BR>No, they will not. The nuts have one if we orient all of life around <BR>finding and stopping them.</div> <div> </div> <div>Again just curious.</div> <div>If (we) as a human beings don't pay attention </div> <div>to destructive people (nutty people..say like Hitler) then won't we</div> <div>just get a recuring event?</div> <div>Anna<BR></div> <div><BR><BR><BR><B><I>Samantha Atkins <sjatkins@mac.com></I></B> wrote:</div> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"><BR>On May 27, 2006, at 6:49 PM, Lee Corbin
wrote:<BR><BR>> Samantha writes<BR>><BR>>>> There is, unfortunately, at the present time NO ALTERNATIVE but for<BR>>>> citizens to keep a close enough watch on each other---or enable<BR>>>> their governments to be able to keep such a watch---to ward off<BR>>>> total destruction.<BR>>><BR>>> How close is close?<BR>><BR>> Just---pray for us---the very minimum it takes to keep WMD out of<BR>> the hands of small groups and individuals.<BR>><BR><BR>That minimum is very intense surveillance of everyone. Not good.<BR><BR>>> What do you mean "no alternative".<BR>><BR>> No alternative to millions of deaths.<BR><BR>Why live your live or advocate running others lives based on such fears?<BR><BR>><BR>>> How would you watch if you don't know what you are looking for?<BR>>> If you do know then there are other means of more or less just-<BR>>> in-time detection.<BR>><BR>> That sounds
just fine to me.<BR><BR>But you can't know what you are looking for completely, can you?<BR><BR>><BR>>> If, and it is a large if, nut jobs could easily take out cities, then<BR>>> I would still prefer to live under that chance occurrence than the<BR>>> very certain evils of total surveillance.<BR>><BR>> Your feelings will change the day that several million people die<BR>> in San Francisco or New York.<BR>><BR><BR>No, they will not. The nuts have one if we orient all of life around <BR>finding and stopping them.<BR><BR>>>> Therefore, the absolute *minimum* intrusion into our lives must<BR>>>> logically be arranged---either now, when we can do so calmly and<BR>>>> rationally---or later, after the first cities have gone up.<BR>>><BR>>> What does this look like? How is it rational to govern that much of<BR>>> our lives on the worse case scenario? Where are the trade-offs?<BR>><BR>> There is no
simple answer that I know of. I can only hope that<BR>> Western nations have elected people who aren't so clueless that<BR>> they see no danger, or aren't so overbearing that they use the<BR>> real dangers to persecute the innocent.<BR><BR>You know and I know that evil (and/or clue free) SOBs are in charge. <BR>Now what?<BR><BR>> Alas, it will be a fine<BR>> balance, and the only thing for sure is that we will take---and<BR>> are taking---risks.<BR><BR>I will take my chances with the terrorists over total government lock <BR>down.<BR><BR>><BR>>>> But the bottom line is: unless it's a threat to *everything*---<BR>>>> outside monitoring of what individuals are doing ought to be<BR>>>> prevented (by checks and balances, of course).<BR>>><BR>>> A threat to even a city in not a threat to everything.<BR>><BR>> Your life will be affected in tremendous ways by the first nuclear<BR>> attack upon the nation in
which you live.<BR>><BR><BR>My life is already tremendously affected by the mass paranoia and <BR>uses thereof that have been going on for the last five years. I <BR>don't need any more of this.<BR><BR>- samantha<BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>extropy-chat mailing list<BR>extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org<BR>http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><p>
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