On Tue, 2008-06-24 at 13:05 -0500, David A. Bandel wrote: > You can teach your children to be moral and responsible. You can even > expect that they will learn that behavior. You cannot expect anyone > (public or private) to share your moral standards -- if you do, you > will be disappointed. But I must ask you, do you lock your front door > when you leave your house? Your arguments would suggest you don't -- > at least where it concerns your "private" communications anyway.
A bit of devil's advocate? Of course I lock the door. But it is not to keep out the police or the government, whom I have always chosen to view, for the most part, as being "on my side" . I would not be as upset if I had found out that criminal elements were setting up shop to pilfer through my communications. En vogue cynicism aside, I do not like to view the government as a criminal from whom I need protection. The Swedish government, at least, is usually working within these guidelines. So, my degree of disappointment is probably raised by the fact that the Swedish government usually plays fair with its citizens. Which is, of course, not a given in all Western governments. > Any government is only as honest as its citizens can force it to be. To accomplish this, I think the citizens should show outrage at things like this. Not just accept is as 'how governments are - don't be so surprised'. > Foreign Relations 101: Governments don't have friends or moral > standards, they have interests (and those interests can be public or > private). This is why we need democracy -- to peacefully rid > governments of interests inimical to those not in government. > > Not trying to be depressing, just pragmatic. I am going to carry on as usual. I am not going to encrypt. I have nothing to hide or have nothing embarrassing or compromising in my electronic communications. Fun discussion. Back to work for me. -- Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Ramböll Sverige AB Kapellgränd 7 P.O. Box 4205 SE-102 65 Stockholm, Sweden Office: Int +46 8-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 And remember: It is RSofT and there is always something under construction. It is like talking about large city with all constructions finished. Not impossible, but very unlikely. _______________________________________________ [email protected] Unsub/Pause/Etc : http://mail.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/general
