I went to a Stallman talk just few weeks ago. Obviously a lot of it went into mass surveillance and privacy, since that's the hot topic of the moment.
I was with a friend, at the end of the talk he described Stallman as "the biggest paranoid I've ever heard". And mind you, that's not after a two minute "Everyone is spying", that's after a 1 hour and an half talk with plenty of examples from everywhere in the world.
I guess some people just don't care.
P.s. I suggest to anyone to go to a Stallman talk, or to listen to a record. One might not agree with his view, but he's a great speaker and has a lot of good points to reflect on.
Since the first Snowden revelations dropped last May (wow, a year already!) I have had to eat a lot of personal crow. I don't think that it's unreasonable to listen to Stallman and say "wow, this guy is ridiculously paranoid", but I've had to come to the realization that that doesn't make him wrong.
It's not a comfortable realization.
https://media.libreplanet.org/u/zakkai/m/free-software-for-f...
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Awesome, no mention of information asymmetry when it comes to mass surveillance. The conversation is still on a base level.
I'll leave this here: "Information Asymmetry and Power in a Surveillance Society" http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/53109/1/MPRA_paper_53109.pdf
"This paper has engaged in a wide ranging discussion around the issues of information asymmetry in contemporary life. We have examined the relationship between such asymmetries and how power is ineluctably interrelated to such imbalances. Within this, we demonstrated how key technologies and techniques have been, and continue to be, employed to deepen and widen the information gap.
Unsurprisingly, we note that there are marked differences between those who inhabit the opposite banks – we are witnessing an entrenchment of power and information within a small, exclusive group on one side while the general population bears the weight of evermore intrusive surveillance.
One potential,and possibly democratic, move would be to ensure that knowledge is spread more equally and transparently.[…]"
Most surely such ideas can be transferred to "tell me like I'm five" levels.
> My worst parenting moments (so far!) have been when I’ve paid too much attention to the kid doing something at the limits of her abilities, only to make her so self-conscious about failing while someone else looked on that she moved on to something else.
This is the best analogy I've seen to the idea that in a world where no one could disobey the law, we could never make any progress as a civilization.
