On 10/25/11 5:26 AM, Peter Lebbing wrote: > So if we can't motivate users by showing the bad stuff that can > happen if you have no privacy, then how to do it? I don't see any > other way.
Years ago W.D. Richter wrote a fictitious interview between the two fictitious characters Reno Nevada and Buckaroo Banzai. It sums up my position quite well. ===== Q: You lament the decline of the great causes -- civil rights, the antiwar movement, the war on poverty, the exploration of space -- and the all-consuming preoccupation with the self in today's culture. But what gave birth to these great causes to begin with? A: Twin utopias, unfortunately: the myth of revolution and the myth of progress. Q: These are myths? A: To the extent that people believe in them as utopias, yes, which is how they were oversold in many cases. By embracing any utopia, we sow the seeds of cynicism when things don't work out as advertised. Q: Not that they've ever been tried... A: Which is the fallacy -- that big change has to happen on an institutional or national level. When it doesn't, you have the epidemic of cynicism we have today, with bean counters running the whole shooting match under the rubric of being realists. Q: So what do we failed idealists do? A: First, stop being failures. It's absurd to judge ourselves against a scale larger than our own efforts. ===== I reject your premise, which seems to be that we *should* motivate users, or that it is *possible* for us to do it. I don't think either one is true. I don't think that I -- or any group of us -- has the capability to do this, so my response to this is to let myself off the hook for it. Every now and again I'll meet someone who's interested in learning about privacy and how to protect it. I do my best to help these people along. That's what I can do, that's what's within my power, that's the standard I judge myself by -- how well I do what good I can do. It's made a world of difference in my mental health. _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
