| reply to CallMeRay
Re: Facebook & Pogo said by CallMeRay :
What no one seems to realize, is that the surrender of our liberties won't come the result of Evil Republicans - everyone will volunteer to give up their privacy, out of convenience or for a payoff.
But, that's the way it's always been.
- The founding generation overreacted to their newfound independence with the relatively libertarian Articles of Confederation. When that didn't work well, after just 12 years, they tossed it in preference of the larger, more powerful, efficient and centralized remote federal government of 1789.
At the time, there were Chicken Littles predicting oppression, unchecked authoritanism, etc. In some ways they were correct. For example the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798. But, we don't know how a nation of (loosely) confederated states would have fared under the threat of war from France in 1798. It was precisely such ineffectiveness which prompted the founding generation to ditch the Aritcles of Confederation in 1788.
- The civil war generation granted the federal government a huge increase of power through the 14th Amendment. Giving the federal government direct jurisdiction over citizens of each state, and enforcement of the Bill of Rights against state infringement (previously it was limited to only Congressional infringement).
At the time, there were Chicken Littles predicting oppression, unchecked authoritanism, etc. In some ways they were correct. There has been a vast increase in federal power (FHA, EPA, DOE, etc.). On the other hand, we don't know how things would have gone if states were free to reinstitute slavery through laws denying unpopular classes of persons their right to assemble, speak, vote, possess weapons.
I suspect that, as technology bumps up against privacy, we'll see enactment of greater controls over a corporation's use of customer information. And, over the government's use too (probably in the form of a National ID to eliminate the existing charade that there is no national ID, as the government buys information from Lexus-Nexus, who operates without any controls).
So, it's not that the Chicken Littles are wrong. It doesn't end with the consequence they predict. It's just one continuum of social/industrial/technological advancement. Each step having its own consequences, leading to new attempts to improve based upon the latest experience. |
 KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | I'm not so sure.
Corporate power over Government legislators and regulators has been growing by leaps and bounds.
I'm not sure how much regulation we'll see in this area as the idea is taking hold that whatever is good for big Business is good for the American people. Which, of course, is patently false.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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