From: Patrice Riemens [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 11 June 2002 12:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [[log in to unmask]: The end of the Postal Service (was: the end
of privacy...)]
Hi John,
The Guardian (and Observer) articles were discussed on the hippies list,
and this was my reply to Caroline Heatlie writing sh'd close her UK
e-accounts and swith to sbail mail... FYI
----- Forwarded message from Patrice Riemens <[log in to unmask]> -----
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 13:23:52 +0200
To: Caroline Heatlie <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Hippies from Hell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: The end of the Postal Service (was: the end of privacy...)
>
> I wonder how long it will take the rest of Europe to do the same. I think
> I'm going back to snail mail!
Then I have bad news for you: Snail mail as we know it is on its way out.
If you follow the antics of the Dutch postal system, formerly PTT Post (&
even before the State Undertaking for Post, Telegraph and Telephone), now
'Royal TPG Post', the most progressive (and incidentally most profitable,
outrageously so) 'postal' enterprise in the world, you will understand
that the future is the absolute and spiteful demise of any pretense of (i)
providing a public service (consumer charters and govt imposed (but not
enforced) ToRs/CoSs are all shameful blablabla) (ii) safeguarding your
privacy. Both are simply too expensive & impractical.
The Postal Service of old had evolved into a sovereign privilege by the
16th century. It was a crown monopoly which was mostly, in effect, about
control of correspondence. When sovereignity went over to the people (say
by the end 18th/19th century) and individual liberties were
constitutionaly granted, the notion of 'secret of correspondance', a
typical 'negative liberty', was imposed upon the still state monopoly of
postal operation, together with an extensive set of other rights and
entitlements (nowadays deceptively refered to as 'universal service' - for
'universal, pls read now 'minimum'). This all made the postal service a
utility, not a commercial operation (running losses varied between
'managable' and 'out to lunch'....).
Now that we have the market triumphant, and profit is King & Emperor, all
these encumbrances can, and have to, swiftly be disposed of. Your mail
today, and even more to-morrow, is simply a commercial service like any
other, and we reserve the right to provide it only if you represent a
sound business proposition. Your sending of long-hand letters to some
impossible address in the North is clearly not, so forget it - or pay 20
Euros. Meanwhile, the state, having repositioned itself (*) as freed from
its responsibility towards the citizenry (losers that should learn to care
for themselves) towards the position of supreme controller and enforcer of
security (of business, not of you, suckers) will treat your correspondance
as yet another item subject to control, seizure, withdrawal or destruction
(like you?).
Constitutional guarantees? secret of private correspondence? Come on, give
us a break!
cheers from the wood,
patrice & Diiiino!
(*) Good read: Saskia Sassen 'Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of
Globalization'
----- End forwarded message -----
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