
From Crossbows to Cryptography: Techno-Thwarting the State (1987) - mo
http://c4ss.org/content/23697
======
halfcat
A good reminder of Sam Harris's excellent article, "The Riddle of the Gun"
[1]. An excerpt:

"Wouldn’t any decent person wish for a world without guns? In my view, only
someone who doesn’t understand violence could wish for such a world. A world
without guns is one in which the most aggressive men can do more or less
anything they want. It is a world in which a man with a knife can rape and
murder a woman in the presence of a dozen witnesses, and none will find the
courage to intervene."

[1] [http://samharris.org/blog/item/the-riddle-of-the-
gun](http://samharris.org/blog/item/the-riddle-of-the-gun)

~~~
IgorPartola
That comes with a huge asterisk. First, guns are much more likely to be used
against the person who is trying to defend themselves [1][2]. You can make the
argument that people should take responsibility to learn how to properly use
guns, but most people will not or cannot. People should also take
responsibility to not overeat, not smoke, not get accidentally pregnant/get
others accidentally pregnant, and not transmit STD's, yet here we are. This
situation can be improved with education, but the reality is that unless
handling guns is your job, you are likely to have it used against you then to
use it on your assailant.

Second, most rape cases do not happen the way Harris describes. Acquaintance
rape happens in 82% of the cases [3], and usually behind closed doors, with no
witnesses. There are no dozens of witnesses, or even knives in most of these
situations.

Thirdly, there are places in the world where gun ownership and use is minimal,
even by the police [4][5]. They have much less violence, murders, rape, etc.
than the US, which has very high rates of both gun ownership and gun violence.
Specifically, the murder rate in the US is 5.8 times higher than in Germany.
Think about that for a second: two first world countries, the US locked in an
endless cycle of gun violence, mass shootings, and police brutality, vs
Germany (or the UK, or Australia, etc.) Basically, more guns, more problems,
as statistics and cold hard facts pretty clearly show.

Personally, I don't think all guns need to be abolished. The police should be
armed with proper weapons. But generally, a private citizen that thinks he/she
will defend themselves with a personal weapon, is likely deluding themselves
about actually being safe, and chances are they are actually in more danger
than without a weapon. Therefore, private ownership of guns for non-hunting
purposes should IMO be abolished in the US, and the police forces re-trained
to use guns extremely minimally.

[1]
[http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/02/having-a...](http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/02/having-
a-gun-in-the-house-doesnt-make-a-woman-safer/284022/)

[2] [http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/mar/25/guns-
pro...](http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/mar/25/guns-protection-
national-rifle-association)

[3] [http://www.911rape.org/facts-
quotes/statistics](http://www.911rape.org/facts-quotes/statistics)

[4] [http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/polizei-
schoss-2011-se...](http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/polizei-
schoss-2011-seltener-im-dienst-a-832037.html)

[5]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate)

------
anigbrowl
Author is laughably clueless about history. Crossbows date back to the 5th
century BC (in both China and ancient Greece), long before the invention of
plate armor. Also, mounted knights in armor collecting taxes? Sure, just like
the IRS sends tanks instead of demand letters...not. Historically medieval
armies included heavy cavalry like knights _and_ crossbow and longbow archers.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow#History](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow#History)
is not exhaustic but reasonably well referenced.

~~~
lez
Even if you are right (I don't know), and history would be exact science (it
is not), that nobody would want to rewrite to they own benefit, the writer
makes a very good point that should be considered.

There is an ongoing arms race between oppressors and freedom fighters. Both
use technology to achieve their goals.

Today it's as true as it was in the medieval era, only the style is different,
and the scale is larger.

~~~
IgorPartola
To be fair, the analogy is very leaky. The US has shown time and again that
arming an oppressed population generally leads to terrible results. On the
other hand, giving an oppressed population access to information seems to do
much good. So, basically the article would be better if the author skipped the
crossbow and guns portion of it and instead simply talked about access to
information. I still believe that what is going to bring democracy to the
Middle East is not going to be a US invasion, but Walmart and McDonalds (for
better or worse).

------
IgorPartola
Imagine a Kickstarter campaign to drop iPods over North Korea. Boy this would
be fun.

~~~
harshreality
There are tiny organizations that smuggle in technology and media from South
Korea (one bag at a time, usually). North Koreans are not universally
bamboozled by their government's propaganda.

However, pervasive propaganda disorients North Koreans with respect to the
rest of the world.

They have an active military only slightly smaller than the U.S. or India, and
a _huge_ paramilitary force (largest by raw count, more than twice India's
second place paramilitary). Over 3 in 10 North Koreans are affiliated with the
military or paramilitary. Of course, one function of the North Korean
paramilitary forces is suppressing dissent, which includes keeping an eye on
fellow paramilitary personnel.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel#The_list)

For further reference:
[https://sites.google.com/site/sophieinnorthkorea/home](https://sites.google.com/site/sophieinnorthkorea/home)

