6 - The Threat of Collapse, The Prospects of Resistance

Summary

People who resist surveillance object to it and try to prevent it. Pervasive surveillance undermines coordination under informational norms. It attacks coordination at a vulnerable point – its reliance on common knowledge. When common knowledge collapses, so does common-knowledge-facilitated coordination. History attests that coordination under informational norms can collapse across the board. The 1950–1990 East German Stasi is a case in point. The Stasi is a convenient reference point that makes current surveillance practices stand out in sharp relief. Resistance is problematic. People generally have a poor understanding of security issues, and even if one mounts a credible defense, a sufficiently skilled adversary can breach it. The rearguard action of preventing surveillance contributes little to the maintenance and creation of informational norms.