"name" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Cynic wrote:
>> On 28 May 2006 08:43:05 -0700, "name" > wrote:
>>
>> >I'm just openminded towards the idea of an open society where everybody
>> >potentially has easy access to any information about anybody, as long
>> >as the openness of such a society also effectively prevents abuse of
>> >any information that we would consider sensitive in our current
>> >society.
>>
>> Except that you have no idea what information may turn out to be
>> sensitive.
>>
>> Maybe you have a relative who married a foreign immigrant. Maybe one
>> of your ancestors was foreign.
>>
>> The next government may decide to impose limitations on certain
>> foreign immigrants *and any relatives they have*. You think that's
>> farfetched?
>>
>> I watched the film, "Pianoman" yesterday evening. It is the story of
>> a Jew in wartime Poland, and based on fact. The teenage son of a
>> friend I was with said, "Why don't they just say that they are not
>> Jewish?"
>>
>> Which would have been perfectly possible, had they not happily handed
>> over their personal details to the government at a time when nobody
>> thought that such political change was possible.
>
> I think an open society with a completely transparant government is the
> best way to prevent totalitarian governments from arrising in the
> future.
> Also, technology like the internet might allow for more direct forms of
> government or even anarchy (in the sense of selforganization) where
> there is no government and people become self-governing by taking full
> responsibility for their actions.

Well since there has never been such a government in the history of the
world, why would you think that humans are capable of such a thing?

Scott E.