Re: <nettime> Happy new 1984

[Matze Schmidt <matze.schmidt@n0name.de>]

hi,

i am sorry, i only read about the case of surveillance, about the facts
here but not about drives 'behind' or 'under' this.

imho i recommend to read the book of reinhard kuehnl. _formen
buergerlicher herrschaft_ (in german) in which the author tries to prove
how the early democratic (?) state germany, the weimar republic was
converted in a fashist way at the very point at which the german capital
was in deep crisis.

but my core-question is: with all due respect to what happened to you
personally, why do you and the protesters in germany refer to the
bundeverfassungsgericht (federal court of justice) and the basic
constitutional law? is it the believe in a real existing democratic
political system of a group (30.000 complained against the retention,
see also http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de) or is it the specific
model of an action against which one may call state-illusion -- a
strange movement against a phantasm made by those who act against it? in
other words a don quijotesque situation for civil rights and privacy
activists. to understand it right, don quijote was fighting against what
he created, after his lecture of a world which already was done.

matze schmidt

> Article 129a, the German law to prosecute terrorism,
> was mentioned in the demonstration when everybody chanted "We are
> all 129a" (it rhymes better German) as well as several talks and
> e.g. during the famous 'Hacker Jeopardy' game show. This year a new
> category was introduced: 'Brave new world'; and at least one question
> referred directly to terrorism.

> My lecture on living with surveillance and blogging about it was
> starting point for a number of discussions.

> and luckily the Federal Court of
> Justice was kind enough to argue in its decision in October that it is
> *not* criminal to encrypt emails

> Also I learned that a wide majority of my readers and listeners are
> extremely shocked about the extent and methods of surveillance 'in
> a democratic country like ours'.

> I was stunned to see so many people apparently be genuinely shocked
> about our experiences. Through comments to my blog and elsewhere, but
> also during the CCC Congress - there were hundreds of people in the
> audience and many expressed the same things after my talk. And these
> are the very people who deal with surveillance and how to prevent it
> all the time. In this case blogging seemed to make the difference.




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