Friday, December 05, 2008

Proclaiming Liberty

The irony of those who, like me, publicly promote liberty is that we give up some of our personal liberty in order to do so.

In many cases our anonymity is gone, even if we think we are protecting it. After all, our true enemies are holding a gun at the heads of our internet providers. I believe that the most any encryption can do is make them spend a little more time unraveling our identities. I hope I am wrong.

Our opinions, which may be highly unpopular, become public. We spend our precious time trying to educate people on this philosophy that we know to be so critically important. Sometimes, this reaps threats of violence. Which may be why so many drop back out of sight after a few years. After all, talking about liberty is pointless if you aren't living it. It is a temptation that is familiar to me, but I think I would find it too difficult to maintain for long. But, you never know.