Every once in a while, I get a not-so-veiled inquiry from someone in the Opposition who is kind of spying on us by using a fake name asking if we are spying on THEM-and, if so, what we have about THEM in our folders.
I always take great pains letting them know that those are not our ways. We have far better things to do than to play Thought Spies-in-Action.
One of my correspondents feels that way, and here is what he wrote:
"For some time I've been irritated at (disgusted by is more like it) the Nizkor folks' penchant for collecting names and "incriminating" (in their mind, and I use the singular with emphasis) statements. They use them to compile dossiers of hate on the enemies of the New World Order.
This is done in the best tradition of steely-eyed ten year old minions of grim revolutionary governments, listening in on conversations of the adults with their little tablets and pencil in pocket, using their active young imaginations to turn innocent statements into sentences of torture and death for the unfortunate and unwitting--even if it be their parents.
I'm in there now, as all of you are or will be.
This practice is revolting in the extreme, but I've had a difficult time finding words to adequately describe how I feel about it. I dwelt on it a bit and then it occurred to me that it is a feature of practically every totalitarian regime, and usually employs the young for the odious job of listening to every conversation for a wrong word.
No one is immune. If they say the wrong thing, then like Abbe Pierre, there is no recourse and a life of blameless devotion to worthy activities will not serve to stay the retribution in the slightest way. Heresy knows no absolution save recantation which will buy at most a knock-out drug before the flames are lit at the stake.
I'd like to see a scathing comparison of the Nizkor hate file collection (whatever they call it) to known instances of the same behavior in history. Russia, especially following the Revolution; Mao's Red Guard; Cambodia's pre-teens running the re-education camps and serving as willing executioners; Eastern European German school children in Russian controlled schools as Ingrid described in a recent Z-Gram; neighbors turning in neighbors as consorts with the Devil during Inquisition and witch-burning times. . . "
Of course it isn't just immature zeal. If it were only that, we would not need to worry. It is much more serious than that, and I believe it is the coming trend unless politically seasoned people object.
Some are already doing just that. In an article entitled "Frontier Justice" (Joel Snyder, Internet World, July issue, page 94-96) it says:
'Consider someone who. . . makes a public statement of some sort via a newsgroup or mailing list. With a few clicks of a mouse, any Internet vigilante can twist a misinterpreted action or quote taken out of context into a personal propaganda campaign.
Make your statement of objection eloquently enough and you can turn anyone into a sinister figure, a threat to the existence of free speech, a menace who should be attacked ad hominem and hounded from the electronic airwaves. The Internet acts as judge, jury and executioner.
. . . arguments hold no sway with the vigilantes who have persecuted intellectual opponents with zealous furor. A single person doesn't have the resources to make a fair defense against a dedicated personal attack from many sources. And such persecutions have the advantage of pandering to many people who tend to believe the worst. . .
If, for example, some vigilante were to take this column as a threat to something he holds dear, he could select quotes (out of context) make up a few "facts" about my background and prior crimes, and have a personal vendetta spread via a few dozen Usenet newsgroups and a similar number of mailing lists between lunch and supper. And it could take me hundreds of hours to correct the wrong-if I ever could-because things like this have a way of popping up weeks and months later. . .' "
Sounds familiar? I can't imagine a more odious and intellectually offensive practice than to dig for dirt, real or imagined, in someone else's private yard-unless you really have to in order to survive.
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"A fanatic goes through life with his mouth open and his mind closed."
(Peter's Quotations, page 196, paraphrased.)