[LINK] RFI: Singapore's Blocks

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

AC Tseng wrote:
> 
> I'm Juliet, currently a student in Oz and a
> Singaporean. :) I've been lurking for awhile now on
> Link cos I find tech stuff and topics interesting even
> though I'm not very technically inclined. Besides, it
> was a requirement for one of my research subjects at
> uni. :p

Are you saying that the study of the Link phenomena is/was a requirement
for a research subject? That's a bit of a worry.

> I've got just a question: What is anti-democratic
> about this statement?
...
> Anonymity breeds irresponsibility.

Well, I'd start with this seemingly innocuous statement. Whatever democracy
is (a very deep and broad subject which is unlikely to have an answer that
suites everybody), my opinion is that a democracy should support the right
of an individual to be anonymous. And that includes anonymously challenging
the status quo, although I would draw the line at violence and destruction
of property. The embodiment of which is anonymously voting for the
candidate of his/her choice on election day.

And to assert that anonymity breeds irresponsibility is a cause/effect
belief that I would dispute. 

I would suggest that the statement "anonymity breeds irresponsibility"
confuses accountability, privacy and anonymity. They are very different
concepts.

I also find it interesting that this question comes from someone who has
been an anonymous lurker (along with an unknown number of other research
students). Is there an an implication that Juliet has been behaving
irresponsibly?

-- 
No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been
said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other
forms that have been tried from time to time.
-- Sir Winston Churchill, 1947

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
brd@austarmetro.com.au