At Stardate 20030630.0816, Jan Coffey wrote:
JvB you don't seem to get the difference between what Dr. Brin speaks on below, and "parinoia". You also don't seem to get how one can "distrust" athority, but have trust in individuals who happen to be in athority. You also don't seem to get the difference between trusting systems, and not trusting individuals in those systems. Could you please elaborate on these so that I may understand your perception?
Your posts indicate a very strong distrust of authority and a very strong fear that this authority will abuse its powers. However, authorities (FREX, a government) don't abuse their powers, it's the *people* (or rather, some individuals) within that authority who might abuse their power. Therefore, your distrust of authority is really a distrust of individuals -- the very same individuals you voted into that position.
We don't *blindly* trust our elected officials either, but compared to us, Americans take their distrust into extremes; hence the observation of paranoia. It appears that America's basic assumption is the exact opposite of Europe's basic assumption: while you seem to go by the assumption that elected officials can *not* be trusted to not abuse their powers, we go by the assumption that they *can* be trusted to not abuse their powers.
So far, most of our elected officials haven't betrayed that trust. Our politicians know that any abuse of power is likely to be discovered sooner or later, and that this discovery will put a quick end to their political career. Few are willing to risk their position of influence, their reputation and their quite pleasant paychecks.
Jeroen van Baardwijk
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