> I think the reason why a lot of us invest so heavily in encryption solutions is because the above makes us so incredibly cynical that politics will achieve anything.

That approach is very dangerous. Basically, if we don't push for political change and just resort to highly technical fixes, then that leaves 95% of the rest of the population out in the cold -- and if [most] everyone else isn't using crypto, how are we supposed to communicate with them?

I credit Cory Doctorow with an excellent explanation of this, which he coins "nerd determinism" in his piece "The problem with nerd politics": http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/14/problem-ner... (a direct link to the podcast of said column, for those on the go: http://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_229/Cory_D... )