[Gllug] NHS opt out - IBM and the Nazis

[Nix]

On 26 Jan 2007, Chris Jones outgrape:
> Jason Clifford wrote:
>> My understanding is that Godwin does not apply is the reference is 
>> actually relevant to the discussion.
>
> You can't seriously think that the NHS trying to make a national
> database (something our government utterly, utterly sucks at, so there's
> no reason to assume it will even happen) is in any way relevant to IBM
> making databases for the Nazis?!

During the Second World War the UK had mandatory ID cards, no less.
Nonetheless with a sufficiently educated eye it is *possible* to see
differences between the government of Churchill and that of Hitler.

(Sheesh.)

> I see from this thread that some of you are mostly composed of paranoia,
> but even so that's a pretty silly thing to say and probably quite
> offensive to relatives of those persecuted by the Nazis.

I dunno, as a member of said class I just find it ludicrous. The problem
isn't that ID cards will Instantly Turn Us Into Nazis: the UK government
isn't composed of Nazis and wouldn't be even if by some amazing
mischance the BNP managed to get into power (we'd come to see a superb
example of the civil service, military, judiciary, and police
stonewalling their political masters for years, is all). The problem is
that *in the future* some government *could* find in them a tool of
universal tracking, which *could* greatly assist campaigns of
persecution, and that *right now* that database makes a very tempting
target for criminals of all stripes...

> Don't get me wrong, I'm seriously opposed to the ID card scheme and
> large databases in general, but I like to think I can come up with more
> cogent arguments against them than strawmen about how the Nazis had a
> database.

Quite so.

-- 
`The serial comma, however, is correct and proper, and abandoning it will
surely lead to chaos, anarchy, rioting in the streets, the Terrorists
taking over, and possibly the complete collapse of Human Civilization.'
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