M. K. Gandhi

[freeman4liberty]

This sad situation developed after my departure from South Africa, but my idea of having permanent funds for public institutions underwent a change long before this difference arouse. And now after considerable experience with many public institutions which I have managed, it has become my firm conviction that it is not good to run public institutions on permanent funds. A permanent fund carries in itself the seed of the moral fall of the institution. A public institution means an institution conducted with the approval, and from the funds, of the public. When such an institution ceases to have public support, it forfeits its right to exist. Institutions maintained on permanent funds are often found to ignore public opinion, and are frequently responsible for acts contrary to it. In our country(India) we experience this at every step.

-M. K. Gandhi   
From The story of my experiments with truth

Thanks for putting up a quotes board!!!   

[freeman4liberty]

The above quote was from The story of my experiments with truth.  There is another book that I consider to be better.  Gandhi wrote a book called Satyagraha in South Africa.  This book is amazing in the fact that so much of it applies to the modern world. 

By the way you can read this book at:

http://www.forget-me.net/en/Gandhi/satyagraha.pdf

You see the tale takes place in South Africa where people from India were treated poorly.  They were required to carry identification which included all ten digits of fingerprints.  Gandhi thought this was an excessive requirement of the government and he struggled against it.

The parallel with today is blatantly clear.  It may happen that RFID chips will be required in driver licenses (already in passports).  I think much could be learned from the struggle against ID with fingerprints, and applied to the struggle against required RFID tags. 

Another thing to note about today is this biometric information.  When they talk about biometric information they are talking about data such as the distance between pupils in the eyes, position of cheek bones etc.  This data can act like a fingerprint to identify a person.  One major problem is that it's not as reliable as fingerprints, which means more false positives. 

There is some overlap in these two books by Gandhi.  If you read only one, I suggest Satyagraha in South Africa.