So why was signing a petition different? Because they might find out?
I worry, I hope needlessly, about ending up with Star Chambers and Councils of Twelve. It's easy to do things in the dark that you wouldn't say or do in the light. Making people who want the laws changed do so in the light is, I hope, a way of a) keeping frivolities off ballots (I hated voting in California. The ballots were pages long in Los Angeles) and b) preventing prejudices from becoming law.
I totally agree (including about CA. Oy.) But is not the opposite problem also true? Consider the case of people wanting to advocate for increased workplace safety regulations, while living in a company town? Could someone, back in the day, who lived in Flint, MI, safely sign a petition regarding a law that GM would have opposed?
Computers put an interesting twist on this. Something that I don't think has happened, but is now technologically feasible, is that a utility company could get a digital list of everyone who signed a petition opposing something they want, and find out which of those people are the company's customers, and either threaten them or reprise against them. That is, I assume, egregiously illegal, but, man, I worked in that regulatory agency, and illegal aint stopped them yet.
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Date: 2010-06-26 03:38 am (UTC)So why was signing a petition different? Because they might find out?
I worry, I hope needlessly, about ending up with Star Chambers and Councils of Twelve. It's easy to do things in the dark that you wouldn't say or do in the light. Making people who want the laws changed do so in the light is, I hope, a way of a) keeping frivolities off ballots (I hated voting in California. The ballots were pages long in Los Angeles) and b) preventing prejudices from becoming law.
I totally agree (including about CA. Oy.) But is not the opposite problem also true? Consider the case of people wanting to advocate for increased workplace safety regulations, while living in a company town? Could someone, back in the day, who lived in Flint, MI, safely sign a petition regarding a law that GM would have opposed?
Computers put an interesting twist on this. Something that I don't think has happened, but is now technologically feasible, is that a utility company could get a digital list of everyone who signed a petition opposing something they want, and find out which of those people are the company's customers, and either threaten them or reprise against them. That is, I assume, egregiously illegal, but, man, I worked in that regulatory agency, and illegal aint stopped them yet.