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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!rwojcik
From: rwojcik@bcsaic.UUCP (Rick Wojcik)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet,comp.misc
Subject: Re:  The Russians are coming (to the usenet)
Message-ID: <9981@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: 7 Feb 89 18:15:43 GMT
Reply-To: rwojcik@bcsaic.UUCP (Rick Wojcik)
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 41

Pawel Gburzynski writes:
> Now, let us assume that the Russians have made it to the
> net. Below is the procedure for sending a mail abroad:
>  1. You submit a written application that specifies the destination of
>     your mail, the subject, and gives clear motivation why you really  
>     have to send it.
>  2. You bring a letter from your local Party Committee (or Komsomol)
>     supporting your application.
>  3. You pass a written test of English.

There have certainly been some interesting claims lately about what sending a
message to Usenet will entail in the SU.  Why do you assume all of this
rigamarole, Pawel?  Snail mail between the US and USSR isn't restricted in
this way.  What makes you think that email messages will involve so much red
tape?  (Excuse the pun :-)  I expect that most Soviets on Usenet will be
circumspect in what they say without having such restrictions.  And I still
think that we'll learn something more about the legality of owning printers
from Soviet Usenet participants.  Are the laws against private ownership of
printers still enforced?  Are there any plans to repeal them?  Let's at least
have a dialog.  We can all have our own opinions about how candid Soviet
respondents are to our questions.  There is a great fear in some people that
many naive Americans are going to get taken in by Soviet propaganda and
disinformation.  The problem is that you can't have freedom of speech if you
start restricting it to protect people from falsehoods.  That is what the
Communist Party *says* it is doing, and look where it got them.

I was once told by a Soviet citizen that a restricted press was better on the
grounds that you learned the truth quicker by reading between the lines.  She
could not understand how we in the West could figure out what was going on
from so many conflicting stories.  My answer to her was that we were used to
weighing the conflicts, just as she was used to reading between the lines.
And she did ultimately admit that a restricted press was wrong.  Finally, her
country is beginning to accept that fact.  Don't worry about Americans getting
exposed to propaganda.  Worry about them not having the chance to get exposed.




-- 
Rick Wojcik   csnet:  rwojcik@atc.boeing.com	   
              uucp:   uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!rwojcik