THE BOY WHO COULD CHANGE THE WORLD: THE WRITINGS OF AARON SWARTZ by Aaron SwartzThe New Press
https://newrepublic.com/article/126674/reading-everything-aaron-swartz-wrote ''' ... In a way, Aaron is a cautionary tale for unschooling. One of the lessons that school teaches is that the people who make the rules don’t really have to follow them. It’s something even the most rebellious students learn one way or another, but Aaron looked up a different set of rules and hacked his way out of school instead. On one hand Aaron was happy with his choice and felt more engaged and happier with online peers, on the other he absorbed a dangerous lesson about navigating bureaucratic systems. Plenty of legal scholars and technology experts thought Aaron had kept on the right side of the letter of the law, but the criminal justice system is resistant to the kind of hacking he tended to practice. I don’t know if he considered fleeing the country, but I doubt it. Maybe if he had lived to see Edward Snowden make dodging extradition look good, things would have been different. I was surprised when I saw the security footage of Aaron entering the MIT building, his bike helmet held half-heartedly in front of his face, his telltale hair poking out the sides. I had read the Manifesto, but I didn’t think it really reflected Aaron’s intentions. I was worried about what could happen to him, but not that worried. I figured he had enough institutional support to keep his punishment to a slap on the wrist. Mostly I was angry that he hadn’t taken what he was doing seriously enough; with a team and a little bit of planning, there’s no reason the authorities should have been able to tie Aaron to the action. But covert ops wasn’t one of his strengths, and he never got the chance to learn. If I’m part of the we that counted on Aaron, then I’m also part of the we that failed him. I thought his connections and credibility and reputation would keep him safe, and maybe he did too. Maybe we convinced him that a boy like him could change the world, or at least always hack an escape route. But there’s no individual who can’t be picked off if they cross the wrong line, or just the wrong prosecutor. '''
coderman wrote:
https://newrepublic.com/article/126674/reading-everything-aaron-swartz-wrote ''' ... In a way, Aaron is a cautionary tale for unschooling. One of the lessons that school teaches is that the people who make the rules don’t really have to follow them. It’s something even the most rebellious students learn one way or another, but Aaron looked up a different set of rules and hacked his way out of school instead. On one hand Aaron was happy with his choice and felt more engaged and happier with online peers, on the other he absorbed a dangerous lesson about navigating bureaucratic systems. Plenty of legal scholars and technology experts thought Aaron had kept on the right side of the letter of the law, but the criminal justice system is resistant to the kind of hacking he tended to practice. I don’t know if he considered fleeing the country, but I doubt it. Maybe if he had lived to see Edward Snowden make dodging extradition look good, things would have been different.
I was surprised when I saw the security footage of Aaron entering the MIT building, his bike helmet held half-heartedly in front of his face, his telltale hair poking out the sides. I had read the Manifesto, but I didn’t think it really reflected Aaron’s intentions. I was worried about what could happen to him, but not that worried. I figured he had enough institutional support to keep his punishment to a slap on the wrist. Mostly I was angry that he hadn’t taken what he was doing seriously enough; with a team and a little bit of planning, there’s no reason the authorities should have been able to tie Aaron to the action. But covert ops wasn’t one of his strengths, and he never got the chance to learn.
If I’m part of the we that counted on Aaron, then I’m also part of the we that failed him. I thought his connections and credibility and reputation would keep him safe, and maybe he did too. Maybe we convinced him that a boy like him could change the world, or at least always hack an escape route. But there’s no individual who can’t be picked off if they cross the wrong line, or just the wrong prosecutor. '''
“A revolutionary is a dead man on furlough.” ~V.I Lenin -- RR "You might want to ask an expert about that - I just fiddled around with mine until it worked..."
Rayzer wrote:
coderman wrote:
https://newrepublic.com/article/126674/reading-everything-aaron-swartz-wrote ''' ... In a way, Aaron is a cautionary tale for unschooling. One of the lessons that school teaches is that the people who make the rules don’t really have to follow them. It’s something even the most rebellious students learn one way or another, but Aaron looked up a different set of rules and hacked his way out of school instead. On one hand Aaron was happy with his choice and felt more engaged and happier with online peers, on the other he absorbed a dangerous lesson about navigating bureaucratic systems. Plenty of legal scholars and technology experts thought Aaron had kept on the right side of the letter of the law, but the criminal justice system is resistant to the kind of hacking he tended to practice. I don’t know if he considered fleeing the country, but I doubt it. Maybe if he had lived to see Edward Snowden make dodging extradition look good, things would have been different.
I was surprised when I saw the security footage of Aaron entering the MIT building, his bike helmet held half-heartedly in front of his face, his telltale hair poking out the sides. I had read the Manifesto, but I didn’t think it really reflected Aaron’s intentions. I was worried about what could happen to him, but not that worried. I figured he had enough institutional support to keep his punishment to a slap on the wrist. Mostly I was angry that he hadn’t taken what he was doing seriously enough; with a team and a little bit of planning, there’s no reason the authorities should have been able to tie Aaron to the action. But covert ops wasn’t one of his strengths, and he never got the chance to learn.
If I’m part of the we that counted on Aaron, then I’m also part of the we that failed him. I thought his connections and credibility and reputation would keep him safe, and maybe he did too. Maybe we convinced him that a boy like him could change the world, or at least always hack an escape route. But there’s no individual who can’t be picked off if they cross the wrong line, or just the wrong prosecutor. '''
“A revolutionary is a dead man on furlough.” ~V.I Lenin
Ps. "Don't mourn, organize" ~Joel Hägglund (Joe Hill) "Goodbye Bill (Bill Haywood, IWW president): I die like a true rebel. Don't waste any time mourning, organize! It is a hundred miles from here to Wyoming. Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state line to be buried? I don't want to be found dead in Utah." -- RR "You might want to ask an expert about that - I just fiddled around with mine until it worked..."
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coderman -
Rayzer