On Sun, 11 Sep 2005, Andrew McNabb wrote:
Big Brother? I'm confused. I've read the book, but I can't see any
basis for your cheap shot. Was there any government censorship
involved? No?
Oh, maybe you're refering to a private organization which disapproves of
a particular use of its resources. But that would have absolutely
nothing to do with 1984.
Maybe you don't understand the Church's and BYU's stance on pornography.
If this is the case, I'm shocked. I don't see how someone living in
Utah could miss it. In any case, I could post links to a half-dozen
Conference addresses by President Hinckley (the prophet). Let me know
if this is necessary.
I hereby propose an amendment to Godwin's Law to include the term "shocked".
OTOH, I have a great deal of respect for Andrew, and in fairness should point
out that the CS admins were actually quite sympathetic about my desire to run
a tor server (especially since it relates to my research).
By "Big Brother", I mean a large organization which tries to enforce its view
of the world on its members, especially in ways which don't relate to the
ostensible purpose of the organization. Thus, in 1984, the evil of the
government was not that it had a law, but that the law was to protect the
government, not preserve the freedom of the people.
In this case, BYU is a university, and ostensibly is there to promote learning
and exploration of ideas. Sure, it's also a private university which tries to
keep a Mormon atmosphere and spare us the evils of school-sponsored beer
bashes, homosexuality and Democrats. But if you took that part away, BYU
would still be a University, whereas if you took the learning away, it
wouldn't.
So, you won't ever hear me complain that BYU doesn't let people display pr0n
on the jumbotron during football games (although what's with those short
cheerleader skirts, anyway?), or run for-profit websites out of their campus
offices. But if Notre Dame searched everyone's backpacks upon entering campus
to see if they were bringing in any contraband Book[s] of Mormon[s] (because
really, space on campus is limited and they don't want that space taken up by
such things), I (and plenty of others) would raise the Big Brother cry.
Likewise I don't appreciate my TCP connections being searched, not just for
pornography, but for anything which some unknown, unaccountable person has
deemed obscene, offensive, liberal, uncheerful, or whatever else constitutes
heresy at BYU these days.
-J
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