Hacker News Reader

It is always a failure to interpolate the future linear from now on. History was never linear. It is more like waves between extremes. Therefore my estimate would be a new Biedermeier period.

You obviously did not study history. Look up Germanys history (Nazis, Stasi) if you want a picture of what a gov't can do with you or your children.

View on HN

I do study history, I just don't see the cyclicality of it. I think it's an illusion that people want to see. The late 19th century was a period of extreme nationalism. There wasn't a similar period 100 years before, and there isn't one 100 years later. I think it's very dismissive of the progress we've made intellectually over the past century to think fascism/communism/tyranny is going to come back. I think it's completely unsustainable in our current (and future) society so there is no fundamental reason to militantly guard privacy against some illusory future evil that won't come about.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com