A Well-Intentioned Law Backfired

Ademo Freeman was convicted of wiretapping for recording police activity. The anti-wiretapping law was probably passed in the first place by people who imagined it would not be used on independent citizens keeping track of possible government abuses. Even the best-intentioned law can go awry.

The Great Bluff

The reason so many people are suspicious of wiretapping and other recording might be due to what I think of as the Great Bluff of the mid-20th century—in which statists convinced people who should know better that technology would always be on the side of the State. As a result, there is a common assumption that wiretapping would only be used by the State and that anti-wiretapping laws could only be anti-authoritarian.

Another instance of the effects of the Great Bluff was C. S. Lewis's opposition to space travel. On the contrary, it might be used to escape the Planners. “God's quarantine regulations” can be used by space travelers to quarantine the State.

This might even account for the belief in some quarters (discussed here) that nuclear energy must be a State technology.