There is a vast difference between what the poll question actually said and what people are interpreting the results to mean. People keep talking about 72% of Americans favoring encryption backdoors or favoring "a ban on 'uncrackable' encryption" [MSNBC], neither of which were mentioned in the poll question.
If the poll had mentioned anything about banning strong encryption or guaranteeing the government a legal right to read your personal email, the results would probably have been very different.
JonKatz is absolutely correct -- it is imperative that we look far beyond knee-jerk reflexes, which it is only natural to have in a situation like this. We as a nation have a responsibility to protect ourselves. To protect our way of life.
It is easy in what is perilously close to being a time of war to think of nothing but getting a bigger hammer. If he hits me, I will simply hit him back harder. Perhaps, in fact, we ought to have hit him back first. Maybe that would solve everything? Or maybe not.
It would be easy for us to slip right back into the Mcarthy mindset of the 1950's, having learned absolutely nothing in the past half a century. It was 1949 when George Orwell wrote about what happens when government interferes too much with the citezens' private lives. Do we want for him to have been right after all?
We Americans are now being called on to look into our hearts and weigh our freedoms against protecting our national identity. A difficult proposition for a country whose national identity is freedom. A country under attack because of our freedoms. Now more then ever it is vitally important that we not let go of those freedoms. That is just what the terrorists want us to do.
Slashdot Mirror
There is a vast difference between what the poll question actually said and what people are interpreting the results to mean. People keep talking about 72% of Americans favoring encryption backdoors or favoring "a ban on 'uncrackable' encryption" [MSNBC], neither of which were mentioned in the poll question.
If the poll had mentioned anything about banning strong encryption or guaranteeing the government a legal right to read your personal email, the results would probably have been very different.
JonKatz is absolutely correct -- it is imperative that we look far beyond knee-jerk reflexes, which it is only natural to have in a situation like this. We as a nation have a responsibility to protect ourselves. To protect our way of life.
It is easy in what is perilously close to being a time of war to think of nothing but getting a bigger hammer. If he hits me, I will simply hit him back harder. Perhaps, in fact, we ought to have hit him back first. Maybe that would solve everything? Or maybe not.
It would be easy for us to slip right back into the Mcarthy mindset of the 1950's, having learned absolutely nothing in the past half a century. It was 1949 when George Orwell wrote about what happens when government interferes too much with the citezens' private lives. Do we want for him to have been right after all?
We Americans are now being called on to look into our hearts and weigh our freedoms against protecting our national identity. A difficult proposition for a country whose national identity is freedom. A country under attack because of our freedoms. Now more then ever it is vitally important that we not let go of those freedoms. That is just what the terrorists want us to do.