COMMUNITARIANISM ANSWERS 75

PERMUTATION

COMMUNITARIANISM MAPS OUT A MIDDLE GROUND ON PRIVACY

John Schwartz, The Washington Post, March 29, 1999, SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. F21; TITLE: A Middle Ground in the Privacy War? Web // acs-EE2001

Amitai Etzioni, a professor at George Washington University, thinks not. He thinks he has found a workable middle ground between the combatants in one of the fiercest fights in our high-tech society: the right to privacy.

Etzioni has carved out a place for himself over the decades as a leader in the "communitarian" movement. Communitarianism works toward a civil society that transcends both government regulation and commercial intrusion -- a society where the golden rule is as important as the rule of law, and the notion that "he who has the gold makes the rules" does not apply.

WIDE GAP IN PRIVACY RHETORIC NECESSITATES A COMMUNITARIAN MIDDLE GROUND

John Schwartz, The Washington Post, March 29, 1999, SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. F21; TITLE: A Middle Ground in the Privacy War? Web // acs-EE2001

For the most part, the debate over privacy is carried out from two sides separated by a huge ideological gap -- a gap so vast that they seem to feel a need to shout just to get their voices to carry across it. So Etzioni comes in with a theme not often heard, that middle of the road that Hightower hates so much.

What he wants to do is to forge a new privacy doctrine that protects the individual from snooping corporations and irresponsible government, but cedes individual privacy rights when public health and safety are at stake -- "a balance between rights and the common good," he writes.

LOSE OUR RIGHTS

COMMUNITARIANISM WOULD SACRIFICE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS EVERY TIME

John Schwartz, The Washington Post, March 29, 1999, SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. F21; TITLE: A Middle Ground in the Privacy War? Web // acs-EE2001

So I called Rotenberg, [Electronic Privacy Information Center] too. He said he deeply respects Etzioni, but can't find much in the book to agree with. For all the talk of balance, he says, "we have invariably found that when the rights of the individual are balanced against the claims of the community, that the individual loses out."

We're in the midst of a "privacy crisis" in which "we have been unable to come up with solutions to the privacy challenges that new business practices and new technologies are creating," Rotenberg told me.