handy
11-17-2013, 08:18 AM
<header class="mainheading"> Yes. More effective than "voting".
https://reason.com/archives/2013/11/07/why-not-opt-out-of-government-control
<hgroup> Why Not "Opt Out" of Government Control?
From bootlegging to working off the books, we've done it many times before, and it's getting ever-easier to exit the system.
</hgroup> J.D. Tuccille (https://reason.com/people/jd-tuccille/all) | November 7, 2013
https://cloudfront-media.reason.com/mc/_external/2013_11/exit-sign.jpg?h=390&w=260slimmer_jimmer / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-NDBalaji Srinivasan, a Stanford Universty instructor and genomics entrepreneur, recently offered some radically individualistic advice to aspiring tech innovators. Speaking at at this year's Startup School (https://startupschool.org/), sponsored by tech "seed accelerator" Y Combinator (https://ycombinator.com/), he warned members of the audience that, despite (or maybe, because of) the liberating and enriching qualities of technology in people's lives, the tech industry faces a backlash from old-line power centers. In response, he said, technological innovators should publicly state their case, but also be prepared to exploit a market opportunity to help people escape government control (https://reason.com/blog/2013/10/30/tech-should-make-it-easier-to-escape-the), no matter the law. Their innovations, he suggested, should allows fans of the old order to “enjoy” the rules and structures to which they're attached, but offer the rest of us a means of exiting an increasingly authoritarian system. In other words, to hell with arguing for more freedom, let's take it.
</header>
That's good advice for all of us—if we can break with old attitudes and embrace a willingness to defy authority.
"I believe the ability to reduce the importance of decisions made in D.C., in particular, without lobbying or sloganeering, is actually going to become extremely important over the next ten years," Srinivasan told his audience. His goal, one he wants tech entrepreneurs to share, is “giving people the tools to reduce the influence of bad policies over their lives without getting involved in politics; the tools to peacefully opt out.”
An opt out from the political system and the burdens it imposes on us is a tempting thought. In many ways, life has never been more (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/us/24religion.html) tolerant (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/), cooler (https://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/09/when-can-i-buy-my-ticket-to-outer-space), safer (for kids (https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303404704577311664105746848) and those trying to avoid crime (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/violent-crime/violent-crime)), or richer (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD/countries?display=graph). It's more possible than ever to work from where you want to live (https://www.newgeography.com/content/003082-the-rise-telework-and-what-it-means) rather than where an office is located, to be gay and safe (https://www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/) (if not fully accepted) in ever-more locations, to enjoy cultural tastes from punk music to opera (https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/pandora-spotify-google-all-access-algorithm-music-face-off/) to porn (https://gizmodo.com/5552899/finally-some-actual-stats-on-internet-porn) without having to seek rare venues, to communicate with people and access information far and wide. But weighing on all of this like the world's wettest blanket or a Handicapper General (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron) of joy is the institution of government, its smothering regulations and intrusive controls over our lives.
In the United States, despite our enormous prosperity and real freedom compared to much of the world, governing institutions have been slipping in their respect for freedom in recent years.
Former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. calls the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 a “watershed” that catalyzed explosive growth in the security state and hostility on the part of politicians toward independent scrutiny. Downie authored a scathing 2013 report (https://www.cpj.org/reports/2013/10/obama-and-the-press-us-leaks-surveillance-post-911.php) for the Committee to Protect Journalists, writing, “Journalists and transparency advocates say the White House curbs routine disclosure of information and deploys its own media to evade scrutiny by the press. Aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified information and broad electronic surveillance programs deter government sources from speaking to journalists.”
Which is to say, Downie is probably on a couple of lists, right now.
That growing security-state encouraged Internet surveillance, erupting into a scandal this year after Edward Snowden blew the whistle on massive NSA international and domestic spying operations. In response, Freedom House cautioned in Freedom on the Net 2013 (https://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2013/united-states) that, while the U.S. “has a robust legal framework that supports free expression rights...a series of U.S. government practices, policies, and laws touch on, and in some cases appear to violate, the rights of individuals both inside the U.S. and abroad.”
The U.S.has slid on two key measures of Economic Freedom in those same years, too: the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom (https://www.heritage.org/index/country/unitedstates), and the Economic Freedom of the World: 2013 Annual Report (https://www.freetheworld.com/2013/EFW2013-complete.pdf) (PDF), compiled by Canada's Fraser Institute. Fraser points out:
Continues at https://reason.com/archives/2013/11/07/why-not-opt-out-of-government-control
https://reason.com/archives/2013/11/07/why-not-opt-out-of-government-control
<hgroup> Why Not "Opt Out" of Government Control?
From bootlegging to working off the books, we've done it many times before, and it's getting ever-easier to exit the system.
</hgroup> J.D. Tuccille (https://reason.com/people/jd-tuccille/all) | November 7, 2013
https://cloudfront-media.reason.com/mc/_external/2013_11/exit-sign.jpg?h=390&w=260slimmer_jimmer / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-NDBalaji Srinivasan, a Stanford Universty instructor and genomics entrepreneur, recently offered some radically individualistic advice to aspiring tech innovators. Speaking at at this year's Startup School (https://startupschool.org/), sponsored by tech "seed accelerator" Y Combinator (https://ycombinator.com/), he warned members of the audience that, despite (or maybe, because of) the liberating and enriching qualities of technology in people's lives, the tech industry faces a backlash from old-line power centers. In response, he said, technological innovators should publicly state their case, but also be prepared to exploit a market opportunity to help people escape government control (https://reason.com/blog/2013/10/30/tech-should-make-it-easier-to-escape-the), no matter the law. Their innovations, he suggested, should allows fans of the old order to “enjoy” the rules and structures to which they're attached, but offer the rest of us a means of exiting an increasingly authoritarian system. In other words, to hell with arguing for more freedom, let's take it.
</header>
That's good advice for all of us—if we can break with old attitudes and embrace a willingness to defy authority.
"I believe the ability to reduce the importance of decisions made in D.C., in particular, without lobbying or sloganeering, is actually going to become extremely important over the next ten years," Srinivasan told his audience. His goal, one he wants tech entrepreneurs to share, is “giving people the tools to reduce the influence of bad policies over their lives without getting involved in politics; the tools to peacefully opt out.”
An opt out from the political system and the burdens it imposes on us is a tempting thought. In many ways, life has never been more (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/us/24religion.html) tolerant (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/), cooler (https://reason.com/reasontv/2013/09/09/when-can-i-buy-my-ticket-to-outer-space), safer (for kids (https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303404704577311664105746848) and those trying to avoid crime (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/violent-crime/violent-crime)), or richer (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD/countries?display=graph). It's more possible than ever to work from where you want to live (https://www.newgeography.com/content/003082-the-rise-telework-and-what-it-means) rather than where an office is located, to be gay and safe (https://www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/) (if not fully accepted) in ever-more locations, to enjoy cultural tastes from punk music to opera (https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/pandora-spotify-google-all-access-algorithm-music-face-off/) to porn (https://gizmodo.com/5552899/finally-some-actual-stats-on-internet-porn) without having to seek rare venues, to communicate with people and access information far and wide. But weighing on all of this like the world's wettest blanket or a Handicapper General (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron) of joy is the institution of government, its smothering regulations and intrusive controls over our lives.
In the United States, despite our enormous prosperity and real freedom compared to much of the world, governing institutions have been slipping in their respect for freedom in recent years.
Former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. calls the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 a “watershed” that catalyzed explosive growth in the security state and hostility on the part of politicians toward independent scrutiny. Downie authored a scathing 2013 report (https://www.cpj.org/reports/2013/10/obama-and-the-press-us-leaks-surveillance-post-911.php) for the Committee to Protect Journalists, writing, “Journalists and transparency advocates say the White House curbs routine disclosure of information and deploys its own media to evade scrutiny by the press. Aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified information and broad electronic surveillance programs deter government sources from speaking to journalists.”
Which is to say, Downie is probably on a couple of lists, right now.
That growing security-state encouraged Internet surveillance, erupting into a scandal this year after Edward Snowden blew the whistle on massive NSA international and domestic spying operations. In response, Freedom House cautioned in Freedom on the Net 2013 (https://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2013/united-states) that, while the U.S. “has a robust legal framework that supports free expression rights...a series of U.S. government practices, policies, and laws touch on, and in some cases appear to violate, the rights of individuals both inside the U.S. and abroad.”
The U.S.has slid on two key measures of Economic Freedom in those same years, too: the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom (https://www.heritage.org/index/country/unitedstates), and the Economic Freedom of the World: 2013 Annual Report (https://www.freetheworld.com/2013/EFW2013-complete.pdf) (PDF), compiled by Canada's Fraser Institute. Fraser points out:
Continues at https://reason.com/archives/2013/11/07/why-not-opt-out-of-government-control